Halloween isn’t just celebrated on planet Earth, according to a photo shared by Nasa that shows the sun resembling a flaming jack-o’-lantern.
On Sunday, the space agency shared a photo of the sun’s 2014 Halloween look on social media, and it is easy to see the similarities between the star at the centre of the Solar System and a pumpkin.
“Even our star celebrates the spooky season,” Nasa captioned the photo. “In 2014, active regions on the sun created this jack-o’-lantern face, as seen in ultraviolet light by our Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.”
According to Nasa, the active regions appear “brighter” because those are areas that emit more light and energy.
“They are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona,” the space agency explained.
This image of the sun is fitting for the holiday because it “blends together two sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths at 171 and 193 Ångströms, typically colourised in gold and yellow, to create a particularly Halloween-like appearance”.
On Twitter, where the photo was liked more than times 2,000, people have expressed their amazement at the sun’s resemblance to a jack-o’-lantern.
“That’s the coolest jack-o’-lantern I’ve ever laid my eyes on,” one person wrote, while another speculated that the star was “having some fun out there”.
The space agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which took the photo, “watches the sun at all times from its orbit in space”.
