--- title: "We’re in Awe of This Massive Tornado of Plasma on the Surface of the Sun" description: "A ginormous, tornado of plasma has been spotted on the Sun's surface, violently raging within a powerful magnetic structure." date: "2023-03-26" modified: "2023-03-26" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/massive-plasma-tornado-sun" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "solar storms" - "the digest" - "the sun" --- # We’re in Awe of This Massive Tornado of Plasma on the Surface of the Sun ![A ginormous, tornado of plasma has been spotted on the Sun's surface, violently raging within a powerful magnetic structure.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Planet Dwarfer NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has spotted an absolutely towering tornado roaring on the surface of the Sun, raging with swirls of plasma to such astounding heights that even our entire planet is humbled by its scale. Astronomers at the observatory had been tracking the "solar tornado" since March 14, until it finally spun itself out four days later and dispersed into a cloud of magnetized gas, [according to *SpaceWeather*](). Thankfully, some keen-eyed amateur astronomers managed to back up SDO's observations with some of the most stunning looks at the monstrous vortex we've seen. "This 14-Earths-tall swirling column of plasma was raining moon-sized gobs of incandescent material on the Sun," tweeted astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, sharing the video he captured. "I can't imagine a more hellish place." https://twitter.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1637189824317894656 ## Puppet Master Rather than wind, this tornado is the hellspawn of the Sun's powerful magnetic fields converging into violent, spiraling structures far more monstrous than the tornado they invisibly puppet. "What we're seeing here is polar crown filament," Mathew Owens, a space physicist at the University of Reading, [told *Insider*](). "A filament is a huge, twisted magnetic \[structure\] that sits above the Sun's surface, sometimes for months." Luckily, our world is safe from the throes of the planet-dwarfing tornado. It may be 14 Earths tall, but our planet is roughly 11,700 Earths away from the Sun — and its trajectory is nowhere close to Earth-bound, anyway. "After eruption, this one headed off over the north pole of the Sun, so definitely not coming towards us or any of the other planets," Owens assured. That being said, there's been a lot of blustering and billowing from the Sun lately, and some of its ejecta *will* be coming our way. Several coronal holes have opened up on the Sun's surface, including one estimated to be [30 times larger than Earth](), heaving solar winds towards our planet that have [already begun to arrive](). **More on the Sun:** *[Scientists Detect "Heartbeat-Like" Signal From the Sun]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()