The sun, otherwise known as the center of our Solar System, got into the spirit of Halloween over the weekend — a mere 93 million miles from Earth.
According to the Twitter handle @NASASun, a recent image of the sun depicted three dark spots on the giant ball of gaseous hot plasma, momentarily giving the sun a "Jack-o-lantern-like" appearance, just in time for Halloween.
However, the effects of the dark spots, known as coronal holes, could have led to potentially hazardous repercussions, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
On Saturday, the NOAA reported the three holes on the sun prompted a minor "geomagnetic storm watch," a warning level with the capacity to "disturb the solar wind environment and lead to unsettled conditions."
This prompted a response from @NASASun, as well.
"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," NASASun tweeted.
The Washington Post reports the coronal holes "send particles out into the universe," which could then be captured by radio antennae, and disrupt communication channels such as radio and television "instead of being absorbed by Earth's magnetic field."
Coronal holes also get their darker appearance against the bright sun due to being "cooler, less dense regions than the surrounding plasma," as well as being regions of "open, unipolar magnetic fields," according to the NOAA.
The holes can then develop into a "co-rotating interaction region," writes the NOAA, bringing forth moderate levels of geomagnetic storming.
According to the NOAA, geomagnetic storms are "ranked on a scale from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme)," and can potentially wreak havoc with spacecraft operations systems.
Coronal holes typically rank on the scale of G1 and G2, according to reports, with the G2 grade leading to limited blackouts of radio communication.
On Sunday, the NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center confirmed there were "no geomagnetic storms" in the past week.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.