In this image, taken by the observatory’s Advanced Aerial Imager, dark coronal holes and bright active regions meet to form what appear to be glowing eyes, a nose, and a broad smile etched into the surface of the sun.

But this “smile” is not just an ornament, it is actually a huge coronal hole – an area on the Sun’s surface where magnetic fields open, allowing charged particles (the solar wind) to shoot freely into space. This particular hole is currently spewing a high-speed stream of solar wind towards Earth, which may cause geomagnetic storms ranging from light to moderate on October 28-29, according to space weather forecasts.

When the intensity of these storms increases, they may cause the aurora borealis to expand, as they can be seen outside the usual polar regions, reaching mid-latitudes.

And 22 years ago in the same week, the famous Halloween storms of 2003 caused dazzling auroral lights and malfunctions in satellites and power systems around the world.

It is noteworthy that the Solar Dynamics Observatory has been observing our sun since 2010, providing high-resolution images that help scientists understand how the sun’s magnetic energy controls space weather, which in turn affects our lives here on Earth.

This is not the first time that the observatory has captured a terrifying face on the sun, as it captured a similar image of a face resembling a Halloween pumpkin in 2014 as well.

Source: Space