May 12, 2014 10:32 AM EDT
NASA Spots Square 'Hole' in the Sun

Our sun has a square-shaped "hole" formed by solar wind that was recently spotted by a NASA spacecraft.

Seen in the star's outer atmosphere, the square is a coronal hole that marks where solar winds are rapidly flowing from the sun, Space.com reported. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the unusual dark shape in a video taken last week.

"Inside the coronal hole you can see bright loops where the hot plasma outlines little pieces of the solar magnetic field sticking above the surface," SDO officials wrote in the video description. "Because it is positioned so far south on the sun, there is less chance that the solar wind stream will impact us here on Earth."

Coronal holes can appear on the sun in all shapes and sizes, interrupting the star's brightness caused by hot plasma reined in by the sun's magnetic field.

According to iO9, the coronal hole is a gap in the star's magnetic field where solar wind streams out, potentially affecting magnetic fields on the next planet. While this particular hole is unusually distinct, it's located far enough south on the sun that it likely won't impact the Earth. 

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