Ray of joy: Nasa captures image of the sun ‘smiling’

Nasa’s photo has prompted a slew of responses online, with many comparing the image to a Halloween pumpkin, a lion and the sun featured in the children’s show Teletubbies. Photograph: Nasa

A Nasa satellite captured an image of what appeared to be a happy face pattern on the sun earlier this week, prompting the US space agency to say the sun was seen “smiling”.

The agency released the image on Wednesday on Twitter, writing: “Today, Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the sun ‘smiling.’ Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space.”