Mind-blowing footage of a solar tornado measuring 14 times the height of Earth mesmerized skywatchers over the weekend.
The gigantic vortex, comprised of unfathomably hot plasma caught in a frenzy of competing magnetic fields, was spotted by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on Friday before it dispersed the following day.
“I spent 3 hours yesterday with my solar telescope pointed at a tall tornado-y looking thing on the sun,” astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy wrote in a tweet posted on Saturday.
“This 14-Earths-tall swirling column of plasma was raining moon-sized gobs of incandescent material on the Sun. I can’t imagine a more hellish place,” he added.
The Arizona-based astrophotographer accompanied his tweet with the astonishing video of the tornado, which extended more than 74,500 miles into space.
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
Apparent perfectionist McCarthy later deleted the clip after apologizing for it being “glitchy,” vowing to release clearer, hi-resolution content in the near future.
Meanwhile, Apollo Lasky, another astrophotographer, also captured the astonishing moment, which was shared on social media. “I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years of watching the sun,” Lasky gushed.
It’s estimated that the tornado was moving across the Sun at a whopping 310,000 miles per hour, and would have had a temperature of around 450,000 degrees Fahrenheit — far higher than the heat of the Sun’s surface, which is approximately 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Twitter users were awed by McCarthy’s incredible vision before it was pulled down from the site, with one exclaiming, “How wonderful and spectacular is our universe! Beautiful and mighty! And we can learn, see, admire and appreciate it, thanks to the extraordinary images you share with us, your followers! Thank you!”
Another stated simply, “Magnificence!”
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.
Despite their sheer size and intensity, solar tornadoes are not uncommon, occurring 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.