A SPACE snake has been spotted slithering it’s away across the Sun’s surface.
Solar Orbiter made the discovery of a tube of cool atmospheric gases that wound their way in the shape of a snake.
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This solar snake came long before a much bigger eruption.
It was seen September 5, 2022, while Solar Orbiter, an Extreme Ultraviolet Imager was approaching the Sun for a pass that happened October 12, 2022, European Space Agency said.
What is called a snake is really a self-formed tunnel of cool plasma, pushed together by the magnetic fields present in the warmer plasma that surrounds it throughout the rest of the Sun’s atmosphere.
For matter to reach the state of plasma, gas must reach high enough temperatures that they begin to lose their outer electrons.
Losing electrons causes an electronic charge, which makes the plasma vulnerable to magnetic fields.
Head of the investigation, David Long of Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL), UK, said: “You’re getting plasma flowing from one side to the other but the magnetic field is really twisted. So you’re getting this change in direction because we’re looking down on a twisted structure.”
The image that we get to see down here on Earth is a time lapsed-film from Solar Orbiter, ESA said.
While it was a nearly a three-hour journey in real time, ESA estimates it must have been traveling “170 kilometres per second” to cross the Sun’s surface.
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Starting from a solar active region, this plasma would later erupt and blast billions of tonnes of plasma into space.
Picked up by the Energetic Particle Detector, this event is thought to reveal some new findings about “space weather,” which can interrupt satellites and other Earth-bound technology,” ESA said.
