A latest development in the sun has left scientists stunned. Huge chunk of the star has broken off from its surface and is swirling like a tornado around its North Pole. Wait, what?
NASA’s James Webb telescope has apparently caught this unusual phenomenon and a video of this moment is going viral on Twitter.
The clip posted by Dr. Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist (@TamithaSkov), shows the sun undergoing this change as a polar vortex (a mass of fluid) gets created around its North Pole. “Talk about polar vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our star,” she wrote.
Watch the video here:
Solar physicist Scott McIntosh of the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research has been reportedly observing the sun for decades. McIntosh shared that he has never seen such vortex and something odd is happening at the sun’s 55 degree latitudes with clockwork regularity once every solar cycle, Space.com reported.
Let’s see how netizens are reacting to it:
What’s happening man?