Halloween is a day for scary things and looks like the Sun got the memo. On Halloween, October 31st, NASA captured a scary-looking video of a vast “canyon of fire” that erupted from the star.
This phenomenon as per Space.com was twice the width of the United States, and it was witnessed happening on the sun’s Southern Hemisphere.
What caused this?
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Behind this ‘canyon of fire’ was a large magnetic filament eruption from the sun, which generated a vast canyon on the sun, which, as per estimates, was roughly 10,000 kilometres or 6,200 miles wide and about 10 times as long.
Solar filaments, as per the report, are ‘colossal’ arcs of electrified gas, or plasma, held suspended above the star’s surface. Responding to the sun’s magnetic field, they snake through its atmosphere.
And when the magnetic field becomes unstable, these filaments collapse, which at times results in spectacular explosions like the one that happened on Halloween.
On social media platform X, solar physicist Keith Strong posted the video along with the caption “The Sun produced a large filament eruption near the SE limb this evening. It was very large, compare it to the size of the Earth (inset)”.
“Notice how it starts moving very slowly and gradually accelerates until it becomes unstable and erupts,” he added.
FILAMENT ERUPTION IN SOUTHEAST. The Sun produced a large filament eruption near the SE limb this evening. It was very large, compare it to the size of the Earth (inset). Notice how it starts moving very slowly and gradually accelerates until it becomes unstable and erupts. pic.twitter.com/WUljIdGGFd
— Keith Strong (@drkstrong) November 1, 2023
Will it affect the Earth?
The video of this canyon of fire soon went viral on social media platform X, with people speculating that it may hit our planet and cause some serious damage.
However, as per a NASA model, debris from the explosion will not hit Earth.
If the eruption had resulted in coronal mass ejection (CME) that was directed at Earth, it would have caused impressive aurora borealis or northern lights in the Northern Hemisphere and the aurora australis or southern lights in the Southern Hemisphere.
(With inputs from agencies)
