Astronomers have always been attracted by the Sun. And now, experts are perplexed by a new development. A massive chunk of the Sun's surface shattered, causing a tornado-like whirl around its North Pole. Though scientists are still attempting to figure out how this happened, the footage of the event has startled the space community. The amazing occurrence was captured by NASA's James Webb telescope and published on Twitter last week by Dr Tamitha Skov, a space weather forecaster. Scientists are particularly concerned about the current development since the Sun continues to release solar flares (called prominence) that occasionally disrupt communications on Earth.
"Talk about Polar Vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55 degrees here cannot be overstated!" Dr Skov said in a tweet last week.
According to NASA, a prominence is a huge luminous feature that extends outward from the Sun's surface. Although there have been other incidents of this kind, the scientific world is surprised by this one.
Scott McIntosh of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, a solar physicist who has been studying the Sun for decades, said he had never seen a "vortex" like the one that happened when a piece of the prominence broke away and was blasted into the solar atmosphere.
Space experts are currently investigating the bizarre incident in order to acquire additional information and offer a more complete picture. Though our favourite star is constantly monitored, it continues to surprise us, as seen by the many intense flares that interrupted communication on Earth this month.