Astronomical phenomena are quite common in space, but there are some in particular that happen every many years, and that means that you will have few opportunities in life to be able to see them live.
And a few days ago, there was a kind of solar tornado on our Sun, and luckily an astrophotographer was able to share it on social networks.
It is a solar tornado that was 14 times larger than Earth and that came to swirl on the surface of the Sun.
Specifically, this phenomenon was discovered by the astrophotographer Apollo Lasky who used images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory to create the video.
As he says, this cyclone or tornado had been circling the north pole of the Sun for three days, creating a huge cloud of magnetized gas and launching it into space.
These types of solar tornadoes occur from spiral-shaped magnetic structures that rise from the Sun and are rooted in the solar surface at each end.
When the column of plasma is fired inside the structure it is guided along its helical magnetic field, causing the plasma to spin and form a tornado.
Perhaps related to the reversal of the Sun’s magnetic field
This event could be related to the reversal of the Sun’s magnetic field that occurs once every solar cycle.
While astronomers have previously been observing filaments drifting away from the Sun, this is the first time one of them has circled through the region in a whirlpool.
Thanks to the new technologies of the POTEspecially when it comes to radio telescopes, humans now have two eyes in space to be able to observe these phenomena.