The sun appeared as a jack-o'-lantern on Oct. 8, just a little early for Halloween, but still apparently showing that Earth's nearest star has as a sense of humor, according to photos captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
NASA said the active regions of the sun 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 Ångströms, typically colorized in gold and yellow, to create a particularly Halloween-like appearance," NASA wrote.
The Washington Post said the sun in the photograph looked more like a "creepy" pumpkin than what most of us have become accustomed to in the sky. Others believe it looked like the direct descendent of the jack-o'-lantern.
"The sun is in the Halloween spirit early this year," said Taylor Umalauf of The Wall Street Journal. "Scientists at NASA have combined images of the active regions of the sun from Oct. 8, to create a composite photo making the sun look like a jack-o'-lantern."
Tom Yulsman of Discover magazine it was a unique view of the sun the general public rarely gets to see.
"This is no Rorschach test — the Sun really does look like a Jack-O-Lantern in this image captured on October 8th by NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory," Discover wrote.
"To be sure, we're looking at the Sun in two particular wavelengths that have been colorized in Halloween-appropriate gold and yellow. Whether the folks at NASA decided to render this image of the sun in those two particular wavelengths because they knew it would produce a Halloween-like appearance is your guess as good as mine. Suffice it to say that I'm glad they did it," Yulsman continued.
Social media also found the jack-o'-lantern sun fascinating.
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