Watch: 'Solar Snake' Slithers Around The Sun's Surface

An odd snake-like filament was seen crawling across the Sun's surface by the European Solar Orbiter, just before a massive plasma eruption. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that the 'snake' is a tube of cooler atmospheric gases making its way through the Sun's magnetic field.

The slithering formation was spotted on September 5, as the Solar Orbiter was making its way towards the Sun in preparation for a close fly-by on October 12. 

Spot the solar snake slithering across the #Sun! 🐍

This ‘tube' of cooler atmospheric gases snaking its way through the Sun's magnetic field was captured by @esasolarobiter's @EuiTelescope on 5 September, ahead of a large eruption 💥

📹 https://t.co/FJgXYq1vwp #ExploreFarther pic.twitter.com/02uIJMMCBH

— ESA Science (@esascience) November 14, 2022

"The plasma in the snake is following a particularly long filament of the Sun's magnetic field that is reaching from one side of the Sun to another," the ESA said in a statement. The plasma in the snake is following a particularly long filament of the Sun's magnetic field that is reaching from one side of the Sun to another, the space agency added.

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David Long, a scientist at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who is heading the investigation into the phenomenon, said in a press release, "You're getting plasma flowing from one side to the other but the magnetic field is really twisted. So you're getting this change in direction because we're looking down on a twisted structure." 

As per the agency, the clip is a time-lapse video of images taken by the Solar Orbiter. "In reality, the snake took around three hours to complete its journey but at the distances involved in crossing the solar surface that means the plasma must have been travelling at around 170 kilometers per second," the agency continued. 

"What makes the snake so intriguing is that it began from a solar active region that later erupted, ejecting billions of tonnes of plasma into space," it added, believing that the snake might be a precursor to the eruption.

The Solar Orbiter is a joint project of American space agency NASA and the ESA. It was launched in February 2020.