The day the sun looked like a giant flaming jack-o’-lantern

Just days before Halloween, NASA has shared an incredible picture they took of the sun on a day the star looked like a jack-o’-lantern.

A spooky snap of the sun looking like a giant, flaming jack-o’-lantern has been shared by NASA just in time for Halloween.

The agency shared the image on social media at the weekend, having initially captured the shot on October 8, 2014, The Sun reports.

“Even our star celebrates the spooky season,” NASA said.

“In 2014, active regions on the Sun created this jack-o’-lantern face, as seen in ultraviolet light by our Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.

Explaining what elements made up the face shape, NASA explained it had to do with the magnetic fields surrounding the sun.

They are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona,” NASA said.

“This image blends together two sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths at 171 and 193 Ångströms, typically colorized in gold and yellow, to create a particularly Halloween-like appearance.”

The day the sun looked like a jack'o'lantern. Picture: NASA

The photo was taken by Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was launched into orbit on February 11, 2010.

Part of the agency’s Living With a Star program, the observatory constantly monitors the sun from its orbit in space.

One of the next major space phenomena to take place will be on May 26, 2021, NASA said, when a total blood moon eclipse will be visible, weather permitting.

That event will see a super full moon totally eclipsed for about 14 minutes over Australia, parts of the western US, western South America, or in South-East Asia.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished here with permission.