NASA Shares Spooky Halloween Photo of the Sun Glowing With Jack-O-Lantern Face

Just in time for Halloween, the sun is taking on a more eerie appearance. On Sunday, NASA took to Facebook to share an image of the sun looking more like a jack-o-lantern with a “smiling” face than a giant ball of fire heating our solar system. The image has garnered more than 1,000 shares and dozens of comments.

“Even our star celebrates the spooky season — in 2014, active regions on the Sun created this jack-o’-lantern face, as seen in ultraviolet light by our Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite,” NASA captioned the image.

According to NASA, the image was captured on Oct. 8, 2014 by the space agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO, “which watches the sun at all times from its orbit in space.”

“The active regions in this image appear brighter because those are areas that emit more light and energy. They are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona,” NASA explained. “This image blends together two sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths at 171 and 193 Ångströms, typically colorized in gold and yellow, to create a particularly Halloween-like appearance.”

The odd image, perfect in time for Halloween, drew dozens of comments.

“Wow! Now that is awesome! Too cool!” one person wrote.

“Great timing for Spookville!! Happy Halloween,” commented another.

“It’s the great pumpkin!” a third joked, referencing the classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Proving just how spooky space can be, the official Twitter account for the Hubble Space Telescope took to Twitter just a day later to share an equally creepy photo of “the collision of two galaxies,” which created what appeared to be a “ghostly face.”

Of course, both the sun and the galaxies are getting ready for Halloween just a few days early. This year, Halloween falls on a Thursday, with the annual holiday, taking place on the evening before the Christian holy day of All Hallows’ Day or All Saints Day (Nov. 1), set to fall on Saturday in 2020 and a Sunday in 2021.

While kids put on their best costumes and head out for a little trick-or-treating, there are plenty of equally spooky ways to spend the night indoors thanks to the slew of Halloween-themed streaming content. Along with the annual 31 Nights of Halloween on Freeform, both Netflix and Hulu have also stocked their libraries with Halloween titles.