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A giant vortex of hot plasma and competing magnetic fields measuring 14 times the height of Earth was spotted by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) over the weekend.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy captured the astonishing video of the tornado, which extended more than 74,500 miles into space.
The tornado was comprised of unfathomably hot plasma caught in a frenzy of competing magnetic fields, and it dispersed the following day.
Solar tornado near the sun’s North Pole. This thing was twisting and growing for 3 days.
Unlike tornadoes on Earth, tornadoes on the sun are controlled by magnetism. Solar magnetic fields twist in a furious spiral, dragging clouds of plasma around with them.© Apollo Lasky / SDO pic.twitter.com/LYdUUtbLEf
— Girl In Space (@ExploreCosmos_) March 20, 2023
McCarthy later deleted the clip, apologizing for it being “glitchy,” vowing to release clearer, hi-resolution content in the near future.
The gigantic solar tornado, which would have had a temperature of around 450,000 degrees Fahrenheit and was moving at a whopping 310,000 miles per hour, was estimated to be far hotter and faster than the Sun’s surface, which is approximately 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Despite their size and intensity, solar tornadoes are not uncommon and occur multiple times a year. In June of last year, another solar tornado was spotted on the Sun, although it was considerably smaller at a measly 12,000 miles tall — about a sixth of the size of the one filmed this past weekend.
The tornado was also captured by another astrophotographer, Apollo Lasky, who shared the footage on social media, describing it as something he had never seen before in all his years of watching the sun.
The solar tornadoes are related to solar flares, which arise out of the tumultuous interplay of magnetic field lines on the Sun’s surface, kicking up clouds of plasma as it spirals.
Twitter users were awed by the incredible vision captured by McCarthy, with one user exclaiming how wonderful and spectacular our universe is, and another simply stating, “Magnificence!”