Huge ‘black hole’ on the surface of the sun is blasting Earth. It looks like a Hollywood special effect of our sun ‘going dark’ – before it either fizzles out or engulfs our planet in fire. But while the image captured by NASA’s sun-observing Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite looks alarming, it’s pretty normal.

Space weather warnings were issued this week by the operator of the biggest power grid in the US – saying that two large ‘coronal holes’ on the sun might disrupt power supplies.

‘Voltage corrections may be required, false alarms triggered on some protection devices’, said the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center.

‘Drag may increase on low-Earth-orbit satellites, and corrections may be needed for orientation problems’.

Coronal holes look terrifying in the images captured by NASA’s sun-observing Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite – but they’re perfectly safe, and normal. NASA says, ‘Coronal holes are low-density regions of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona. Because they contain little solar material, they have lower temperatures and thus appear much darker than their surroundings.

‘Coronal holes are visible in certain types of extreme ultraviolet light, which is typically invisible to our eyes, but is colorized here in purple for easy viewing.

‘Coronal holes are the source of a high-speed wind of solar particles that streams off the sun some three times faster than the slower wind elsewhere.’

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/10/26/huge-black-hole-on-the-surface-of-the-sun-is-blasting-earth-6216560/#ixzz4OCyxnpa3 https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/news