Eurasian Siskin/grönsiska. Värmland, Sweden (February 15, 2020).

Hypnotic jiggles 💕

Federal workers are going off.

roomba

your scent processing being so close to memory in your brain is insane sometimes you step outside and take a whiff and go "ah, it smells like playing pokemon emerald in my third grade afterschool program in the crisp september of 2006"

Boo! Did we get you? 🎃

This solar jack-o-lantern, captured by our Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in October 2014, gets its ghoulish grin from active regions on the Sun, which emit more light and energy than the surrounding dark areas. Active regions are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere.

The SDO has kept an unblinking eye on the Sun since 2010, recording phenomena like solar flares and coronal loops. It measures the Sun’s interior, atmosphere, magnetic field, and energy output, helping us understand our nearest star.

Grab the high-resolution version here.

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(detail from the San Barnaba Altarpiece (c. 1488) by Sandro Botticelli)