The power of smiles is so great that it can make a great differentiator in turning a bad day into a good one, even if it is a non-human smile. NASA has just captured a touching postcard of the Sun, where the star seems to be smiling at us in its most dazzling version.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched into space in 2011, the first mission of the Living With a Star (LWS) program, which is dedicated to understanding the causes of solar variability and its impacts on the Earth, through the study of the atmosphere of the Big Star.
For more than a decade it has sent back data from our host star, to understand its aberrant nature. But not everything is serious in solar research, the space agency through its official Twitter account ‘NASA Sun & Space’, shared a photograph taken of the Sun by the SDO where the Sun seems to be giving us a wide smile.
“Say whiskey,” can be read at the beginning of the tweet. “Today, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the Sun ‘smiling.’ Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where the rapid erupts into space,” the account explains.
Say cheese!
Today, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the Sun “smiling.” Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space.
— NASA Sun, Space & Scream (@NASASun)
Strangely, the chaotic fluctuations of the Sun this time took the form of two holes at the top that give similarity to a pair of eyes, while another of the coronal holes extends at the bottom as if elongating towards the ends that give the appearance of a smile. .
It is an amazing photograph that shows us the power of the mind, of course it is not a genuine smile of the Sun, instead what we believe we observe is due to the phenomenon known as ‘pareidolia’. This is a psychological phenomenon that makes us observe images, figures and human faces where there are none.
Although the bright and tender smile of the Sun seems genuine to our eyes, it is nothing more than a game of the mind, although it must be said that on a scale of cosmic proportions. This is perhaps the largest pareidolia we have ever observed.