A gigantic, backwards "letter S" recently appeared slap bang in the middle of the sun, moments before our home star unleashed a massive plume of plasma that later smashed into Earth, temporarily disrupting our planet's magnetic field.
The bizarre S-shaped structure, which bears a resemblance to the iconic symbol of Superman, took shape on Sept. 4, less than an hour before an M-class solar flare launched a giant magnetized cloud of plasma stretching up to 435,000 miles (700,000 kilometers) across, Spaceweather.com reported. This plasma plume, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), appeared dark against the sun's surface because its plasma is significantly cooler than its surroundings, similar to why sunspots appear black.
