NASA saw the Sun smiling, and it’s the happiest thing – ScienceAlert

Sometimes an unexpected smile is all it takes to turn your day around. Well, this kind of joyful surprise doesn’t get much bigger than that.

NASA astronomers have spotted the Sun with a cheerful and remarkable smile, in a sunny spectacle destined to put a smile on your face.

As shared a NASA’s Sun Twitter accountthis incredible image reveals that the Sun looks positively radiant in more ways than one.

Of course, the “smile” we see here isn’t really a real smile. What we are looking at are coronal holes (the dark patches), where rapid bursts of solar wind erupt into space, as NASA explains.

It happens like this, in the middle of everything crazy solar fluctuations that the Sun tends to exhibit – that two of these coronal holes look like some sort of twinkling eyes, while a third bears an eerie resemblance to an exuberant smile.

What’s really going on here is phenomenon of pareidoliawhere we imagine to see things like faces in random patterns.

It’s a mind trick, only this time it’s being played on a grand scale, the size of the Sun.

As some keen Twitter users have noted, the Sun’s face here doesn’t just look like a smiley face.

The particular proportions of that exultant smile bear a striking resemblance to the facial configuration of a certain legendary villain of Ghostbusters tradition: the Stay Puft marshmallow man

Is that the face of Stay Puff’s marshmellow man from Ghostbusters? pic.twitter.com/NKpAqMrWDU

– Watt on Earth Four (it/it) (@Watt_on_Earth4) October 27, 2022

Yes, it really is a coincidence.

The phrase “separated at birth” even comes to mind, even if it’s just another example of people seeing something that isn’t really there.

But even if this is just a random and meaningless confluence of mysterious solar physicsthat doesn’t mean we shouldn’t laugh at it.

So enjoy! And always try look for the positive aspects of life wherever you can

Let the Sun be your shining example.