NASA Spots a 7,000mph Whirlpool of Plasma on the Surface of the Sun

A stunning new Nasa image shows an extremely rare pattern streaming from the sun at close to 7,000 miles per hour (11,200 km/h).

A dark snake-like filament can be seen erupting from the star, but while the formations are normally stretched out like a strand, this one is circular like a whirlpool.

This is because it is being yanked back by the star’s staggering gravitational pull – which is about 27.9 times that of Earth.

The rare sight, captured by Nasa’s orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), has only been seen a ‘handful of times’, the agency said.

‘Solar filaments are clouds of charged particles that float above the sun, tethered to it by magnetic forces,’ Nasa said in a statement. (Read more from “NASA Spots a 7,000mph Whirlpool of Plasma on the Surface of the Sun” HERE)

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