Solar Tornado Big Enough to Swallow Earth Seen on ‘Quiet’ Sun

A massive solar tornado, big enough to swallow the Earth, was observed twirling across the surface of the “quiet” sun last week.

Using a telescope made from second hand parts, including part of an old wooden couch, David Wilson captured the dramatic solar event on May 7, from his backyard observatory in Inverness, Scotland.

He told Newsweek: “No need to spend tens of thousands of euros for solar astronomy.”

Wilson’s footage shows plasma swirling around the surface of the sun like debris from a tornado, reminiscing the motion of what on Earth is a common whirlwind.

Last week, Spaceweather.com reported that solar activity had been low all week long, with a “persistent quiet causing the sun’s X-ray output to flatline”.

However, the website also explained that “quiet” on the sun is relative, because solar activity is rated on explosiveness.

While solar tornadoes may resemble those on Earth, they are actually very far from similar. Earth tornadoes are formed by intense winds and move around leaving destruction in their path, however, those on the solar surface are entirely different.

Solar tornadoes are made of magnetized gas and appear to be rooted somewhere further down into the surface of the sun, never moving away from their initial location.

Storms are not uncommon on the sun. However, NASA says, they can sometimes create a major disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field, called a geomagnetic storm.

While these storms don’t usually cause any direct harm to us on Earth, they can lead to radio blackouts, power outages, and on the positive side some beautiful auroras too.

In May 2024, an extreme G5 geomagnetic storm, the strongest recorded in the last 500 years, caused dazzling displays of auroras across the skies. But this was not the only effect this storm had on Earth.

According to NASA, the threat of higher radiation exposure and the risk of facing communication and navigation losses, forced some trans-Atlantic flights to reroute.

In April of this year, a study from Queen’s University Belfast found that intense solar flares caused the Earth’s atmosphere to pulse.

Lead author of the story, physicist Aisling O’Hare, previously told Newsweek: “This is important as we’ve been able to show, for the very first time, that the sun’s flare pulsations and the Earth’s atmosphere were pulsing in sync during a solar flare.”

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