It looks like a vast plasma filament broke off from the sun and formed a tornado-like vortex around its north pole. On February 2, the mysterious occurrence was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Talk about the Polar Vortex, tweeted Tamitha Skov, a space weather forecaster. The enormous, luminous filament that extends from the sun but is anchored to its surface is known as a solar prominence, she continued, and it appeared in the telescopic footage. However, in this instance, it seems like a portion of the filament detached and started whipping itself in a circle around the north pole of our star.
Here is the full video of the Sunspot breaking off, confirmed by Scientist:
Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said in an email to Insider, “I have never seen anything like it. “That doesn’t necessarily imply it hasn’t happened before.” Multiple filaments appeared to separate from the solar surface and develop into a vortex. You may get a sense of scale from the following NASA image, which places Earth next to a solar prominence. You might have loved reading about Master Sword In The Legend Of Zelda.
On The North Pole Of The Sun, More Intense Activity Is Growing
More plasma swelled at the solar north pole on Friday morning. The cool plasma accumulating at the sun’s surface pole appears to be preparing to blast into space. Approximately once every ten years, according to McIntosh. Compared to the event we observed last week, this activity is “perhaps more usual and a lot less swirly,”.
The Suns’ northern pole appears to be in the process of lifting off, preparing to blast into space:
A large prominence located at the Sun's northern pole appears to be in the process of lifting off. Something to watch over the next several hours. Should this event produce a coronal mass ejection (CME), it would be directed away from Earth. Image by GOES-16 SUVI. pic.twitter.com/F42F2oOhmQ
— SolarHam (@SolarHam) February 10, 2023
Since none of these eruptions is directed at Earth and instead are occurring at the sun’s north pole, they do not interfere with GPS and radio signals the way other solar explosions can. According to the author, these are merely scientific inquiries into what is occurring at the poles, not any disruptive events to the Earth. You could also consider Relive The SpaceX Starship Breath Taking.
FAQs
Is A Part Of The Sun Broken?
No part of the Sun “broke off”—prominences are everyday occurrences—but the fact that the filament swirled around the polar region makes this a rare event.
How did A Piece Of The Sun Break Off?
A ‘material’ from a northern prominence broke away from the central filament and was circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of the Sun.
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