Rare phenomenon of a broken piece of the Sun circulating in a polar vortex fascinates scientists

There is no end to mysteries in space exploration. Though we have progressed to exploring galaxies way beyond our Milky Way, scientists are still witnessing new phenomena in our own neighboring cosmic bodies. Some of these phenomena can barely be explained. In 2023, one such flabbergasting occurrence on the surface of the Sun shook the world of space science. Dr. Tamitha Skov (@TamithaSkov), a space weather physicist who often shares informative posts and videos about cosmic phenomena, posted a video on X of a fragment of the Sun breaking off from the star. What baffled the scientists most was this fragment's unusual path after separating from the surface.

The timelapse video of the Sun, recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, quickly gained traction with nearly 660k views when Skov posted it. In the video, we see a large filament severing off from the Sun's surface and getting caught up in an enormous polar vortex swirling on top. "Talk about the polar vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament and is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!" Skov's description read. Both X users and scientists were intrigued by this rare solar polar vortex occurrence on February 2nd, 2023.

As the X post grabbed immense attention, Skov explained why she called attention to a piece of the Sun breaking away. "What ended up happening was something that started off as a very normal, average, what we call a polar crown filament. It became this kind of big tower, like a big volcano that was beginning to rise up near the very northern pole," she told CBC. While filaments like these often cool down and fall back into the Sun's atmosphere, this particular filament carrying some solar material "shredded off into this wind," and swirled in a vortex as it cooled down. 

"Lo and behold, it ended up not being the polar vortex that went viral. It was me saying that a part of the prominence material broke away from the main structure," Skov explained. So, the Sun's fragment didn't "literally" break away and the rarity of the phenomenon actually involved the polar vortex. It is common to find polar vortexes on Earth but finding them in the poles of our star was quite fascinating to the scientists. On our planet, a polar vortex is nothing but a massive low-pressure area with cold air hovering over both poles, states the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These vortexes are weak in the summer and get stronger in the winter when they expand and send cold air to the countries near the poles.

The new data of this polar vortex phenomenon from the Sun was unusually clear and detailed to the observer. Massive solar flares carrying solar winds and materials from the Sun often occur when a reversal of magnetic poles happens at the peak of the solar cycle every 11 years, R.T. James McAteer, an astronomy professor at New Mexico State University, explained to Popular Mechanics. "Some scientists see that 55-degree latitude as a key boundary of overlapping zones, like magnetic bands. If this is real, a solar polar vortex could be analogous to the polar vortexes we find on Earth," McAteer added.