Active Regions on the surface of the sun combined this week to resemble the cackling visage of a Jack-O-Lantern.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this solar activity on October 8, 2014. Here are the specifics from the folks at Goddard Media Studios:
The active regions appear brighter because those are areas that emit more light and energy — markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona. This image blends together two sets of wavelengths at 171 and 193 Angstroms, typically colorized in gold and yellow, to create a particularly Halloween-like appearance.
