NASA Captures ‘Smiley Face’ of Sun

Earlier this week, a NASA satellite snapped an image of what looked to be a joyful face pattern on the sun, prompting the US space agency to declare that the sun was "smiling."

On Wednesday, the agency tweeted the image, stating, "Today, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the sun ‘smiling.' Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space.”

The Solar Dynamics Observatory is a NASA project that studies how solar activity is formed and how it affects space weather. The observatory's spacecraft, which was launched on February 11, 2010, examines the sun's interior, atmosphere, magnetic field and energy output.

The sun, our nearest star, is composed of plasma, a highly hot ionized gas. According to NASA, the magnetic forces generated by the churning plasma cause the planet's surface and atmosphere to alter constantly.

Despite its pleasant appearance, researchers warn that the sun's coronal holes may indicate a solar storm that will reach Earth on Saturday.

Solar storms are a range of mass and energy eruptions from the surface of the sun that alter the earth's magnetic field. As a result, the visibility of the polar lights, commonly known as auroras, increases in both the northern and southern hemispheres.