Even our star should have moments of good mood and joy. At least that’s what it looks like in the NASA image. Astronomers have seen the Sun emitting a wonderful and joyful smile in a solar spectacle.
Of course, the “smile” we see here is not really a real smile. What we see are coronal holes (dark spots) where fast gusts of solar wind rush into space, NASA explains.
The sun smiles... or is it a prank of our brain?
As reported in the NASA account Sun without Twitter, this incredible image shows the Sun appears to be shining in more than one way. This smile is no more than two coronal holes, similar to twinkling eyes, and the third resembles an exuberant smile.
In fact, this phenomenon is due to the crazy solar fluctuations that the Sun tends to exhibit.
What's really going on here is paridolia phenomenon, where we imagine seeing things like faces in random order. It's a trick of the mind, only this time it's on a colossal scale, the size of the sun.
As some eagle-eyed Twitter users have pointed out, the Sun's face doesn't just look like a smiley face here. The particular proportions of this jubilant smile bear a striking resemblance to the shape of the face of a certain legendary Ghostbusters villain: a man from marshmallow.
Say cheese! 📸
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the "smiling" Sun today. These dark spots on the Sun, visible in ultraviolet light, are known as coronal holes and are areas where the fast solar wind rushes into space. pic.twitter.com/hVRXaN7Z31
Yes, it's really a big coincidence. The phrase "separated at birth" really comes to mind, even if it's just another example of people seeing things that aren't really there. But even if it's just a pointless and random confluence of mysterious solar physics, that doesn't mean we shouldn't laugh at it.
