Holes Found In Sun's Atmosphere, Will These Cause Danger?

A NASA spacecraft recently found a hole creeping over the sun's surface, and even though it looks like a scene out of an apocalypse story, the hole is no cause for alarm.

Two Coronal Holes on the Sun pic.twitter.com/rKO1upvWuB

— Space Wonders (@SpaceWonders_) July 7, 2016

Science Alert noted that the coronal hole is just a phenomenon that pups up on the sun's atmosphere from time to time. NASA said that these holes mark low-density spots where the magnetic field opens freely into space, allowing hot material to speed outward. Because of this, the affected areas have less plasma than the brighter surroundings, causing them to look dark.

The hole in the sun is not entirely alarming; however, it can still lead to problems here on Earth. Huffington Post noted that Solar Winds could be released from the corona and form solar storms, which can disrupt satellite and radio communication systems.

Spotted by Nasa's solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), an orbiting satellite saw the growth on the star's northern hemisphere. As per the explanation by NASA, " Coronal holes are the source of a high-speed wind of solar particles that streams off the sun some three times faster than the slower wind elsewhere."

There are other problems to look into, though. Mirror UK noted that last month, the sun went "completely blank" a couple of times, which suggests that the earth could be heading toward a mini ice-age type of era. However, there is also the fact that the star's surface did not have sunspots for four days - something that hasn't happened since 2011.

To get a closer look at the images released by NASA, Tom Yulsman of Discover's ImaGeo blog managed to put together a short animation that showed the massive hole. Check it out below: