Why the sun has two giant holes, and what that means for Earth

Tech Insider
  • Two giant holes, 18 to 30 times the size of Earth, have appeared on the surface of the sun.
  • They could send 1.8 million mph solar winds toward Earth.
  • They're called coronal holes, which are cooler areas that don't glow as bright as others.

Images from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft reveal tiny flares shooting from a 'hole' in the sun. They could explain how the sun blasts Earth with charged particles.

Tech Insider
mosaic of square of bright yellow solar surface with dark shadowy jets shooting across
Snapshots of small jets, or "picoflares," on the sun, from the Solar Orbiter mission operated by NASA and ESA.

ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team; acknowledgement: Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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