NEW YORK, BRONX (ORDO News) — On Halloween night, the Sun put on a spectacular show: a powerful solar eruption created a stunning “canyon of fire” on its surface. This incredible event, recorded by NASA‘s Solar Dynamics Observatory, demonstrated the awe-inspiring and sometimes terrifying dynamics of our closest star.
The eruption was so colossal that it created a valley on the surface of the Sun more than twice the width of the United States and seven times the length of the Earth itself.
NASA footage shows a huge plume of plasma bursting from the Sun, forming a filament at the southeastern limb that quickly expands and bursts, spewing electrified gas toward what scientists call the Earth’s impact zone.
This unusual phenomenon was caused by the sunspot AR3477 releasing an M-flare, which could cause brief blackouts of radio signals in the polar regions of the Earth.
The size of this fiery canyon is amazing: its width is about 97,000 km. Its size has allowed it to be observed from Mars by NASA’s Perseverance rover, despite the Red Planet being 145.59 million miles away from solar chaos.
The mesmerizing “canyon of fire” coincided with the Sun’s approach to solar maximum, a period of particularly intense solar activity that occurs approximately once every 11 years. This event was preceded by the growth of a solar prominence – a loop of magnetized plasma – in the southern hemisphere of the Sun.
Eventually the prominence became unstable and ruptured, leaving behind a gaping canyon-like hole on the surface of the Sun’s superhot plasma.
To appreciate the scale of this solar event, it should be noted that the plasma ravine is approximately 620 times wider than the Grand Canyon of our planet and 224 times longer.
Even compared to the largest known canyon in the solar system – Valles Marineris on Mars – the fiery solar figure was 50 times wider and 25 times longer.
Although plasma plumes from such eruptions can cause geomagnetic storms and auroras when they reach Earth, the trajectory of this prominence will fortunately pass by our planet. This alleviates concerns about possible geomagnetic disturbances.
Amid these fascinating observations of the Sun, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) made history as the fastest man-made object, reaching a record speed of 394,736 mph in September.
Launched in 2018, SDO continues to study solar phenomena, including identifying sources of solar energetic particles that pose a risk to spaceflight and communications.
This solar viewing goes beyond mere spectacle. In 2021, researchers used data to trace the plasma fingerprint in the sun’s chromosphere, expanding our understanding of solar storms and their origins.
This knowledge opens up opportunities to more accurately predict significant solar events, allowing risks to space crews, satellites, ground vehicles and power grids to be more quickly mitigated.
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News agencies contributed to this report, edited and published by ORDO News editors.
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