Recently, the sun has produced some bizarre looks. From October, NASA displayed a silly solar 'smile,' and right now, the European Space Agency is highlighting a solar 'snake' observed by the Solar Orbiter probe. The solar snake can be seen moving over the surface of the sun in a sinuous streak that begins close to a brilliant point on the star's lower right side.

The video was time-lapsed on September 5 by the orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager. The serpent moved at a dizzying speed of around 170 kilometres per second, covering the solar surface in three hours.

All of the gas in the sun's atmosphere is plasma, a superheated form of matter, due to the sun's intense heat. Here is a NASA primer on how the invisible magnetic field of the sun interacts with plasma to form the snake. Lines of magnetic field influence plasma. The magnetic field of the sun has a particularly long filament that extends from one side of the sun to the other, which the plasma in the snake is following.

The snake is very fascinating from a scientific standpoint in addition to having beautiful appearance .The snake's origins in a solar active zone that subsequently exploded and ejected billions of tonnes of plasma into space are what make it so fascinating.

In collaboration with NASA, ESA is in charge of the Solar Orbiter mission. Early in 2020, the spacecraft was launched to begin a mission to investigate the unknown polar regions of the sun and gather first-ever photographs of our gloomy star, like this breathtaking vista of its disc and corona.

Scientists will be able to better understand our sun's activity and how it produces space weather by using data gathered by Solar Orbiter and NASA's complementary Parker Solar Probe mission on the snake and the eruption. Space weather can affect communications and navigation systems on Earth. We can probably all agree that the solar snake is amazing, even if you're not a fan of snakes on our planet.