--- title: Sun Halloween Pictures NASA: Most Terrifying Pictures of the Sun description: Just in time for Halloween, NASA released photos of the Sun on Oct. 8 looking a lot like a Jack-O-Lantern, and it's kind of terrifying. canonical: https://time.com/3491240/sun-photos-halloween/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-10T20:17:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:44.623Z og:title: Sun Halloween Pictures NASA: Most Terrifying Pictures of the Sun og:description: Just in time for Halloween, NASA released photos of the Sun on Oct. 8 looking a lot like a Jack-O-Lantern, and it's kind of terrifying. og:url: https://time.com/3491240/sun-photos-halloween/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5db7803dc7072417/698760175f570f4c82b12a85/halloween_sun_2014.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Halloween_Sun_2014 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sun Halloween Pictures NASA: Most Terrifying Pictures of the Sun twitter:description: Just in time for Halloween, NASA released photos of the Sun on Oct. 8 looking a lot like a Jack-O-Lantern, and it's kind of terrifying. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5db7803dc7072417/698760175f570f4c82b12a85/halloween_sun_2014.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here Are the Most Terrifying Pictures of the Sun You'll Ever See  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 10, 2014 8:17 PM UTC  A NASA photo taken Oct. 8 appears to look like Jack-O-Lantern. A NASA photo taken Oct. 8 appears to look like Jack-O-Lantern.NASA/GSFC/SDO  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 10, 2014 8:17 PM UTC Just in time for Halloween, NASA released [photos](http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html) of the Sun on Wednesday—and it’s looking a lot like a Jack-O-Lantern, and it’s kind of terrifying. The images, produced by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, aren’t photoshopped, but they do combine images from two wavelengths that typically emit gold and yellow. The difference in the photo’s brightness is a result of different levels of energy and light emissions from the surface of the sun. More energy emitted results in a brighter appearance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3491240/sun-photos-halloween/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3491240/sun-photos-halloween/"},"headline":"Here Are the Most Terrifying Pictures of the Sun You'll Ever See","datePublished":"2014-10-10T20:17:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:44.623Z","description":"The sun looks like it's ready for Halloween","url":"https://time.com/3491240/sun-photos-halloween/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","Science topic","sun"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5db7803dc7072417/698760175f570f4c82b12a85/halloween_sun_2014.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5db7803dc7072417/698760175f570f4c82b12a85/halloween_sun_2014.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Halloween_Sun_2014","caption":"A NASA photo taken Oct. 8 appears to look like Jack-O-Lantern.","creditText":"NASA/GSFC/SDO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3491240/sun-photos-halloween/","name":"Here Are the Most Terrifying Pictures of the Sun You'll Ever See"}}]}] ```