St. Patrick's Day solar "tornado"

Posted at 12:17 PM, Mar 21, 2023

and last updated 2023-03-22 14:21:57-04

There was quite a sight on St. Patrick's Day but it was not in Baltimore or even Maryland, but rather on the surface of the Sun.

A solar 'tornado' was spotted on the Sun through NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. While it has been given the colloquial name of a solar 'tornado', it is actually not one in the sense of what we see on Earth.

This phenomenon is called solar prominence and it is a vortex of hot plasma that is spun up by the magnetic field of the Sun. While the shape can appear to be tornado-like, it is not formed by winds and a thunderstorm.

While this might be the first time you have seen one, these whirls occur a few times a year. They can extend for hundreds of thousands of miles before looping back to the Sun's surface.

And if you are worried about this possibly affecting Earth, there is no threat from this event as the Space Weather Prediction Center has no watches or warnings for solar interference.

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