'Solar snake' spotted slithering across sun's surface

If scientists from Europe's top space agency are to believed, this could be the largest snake in the solar system.

Video released by the European Space Agency (ESA) this week shows a disturbance racing across the surface of the sun at speeds of around 170 kilometres per second.

They've nicknamed it the "solar snake" - for its distinct "snaking" motion across the blazing star.

READ MORE: The front page that will infuriate Donald Trump

The video comes from the ESA's Solar Orbiter.

The small spacecraft was loaded up with sensors and sent on a close orbit of the sun to capture pictures of its surface.

On its trip around the sun on October 12, it spotted a "tube of cool plasma" snaking its way through the star's magnetic field.

This plasma is suspended by magnetic fields in the hotter surrounding atmosphere.

The plasma in the snake is following a particularly long filament of the sun's magnetic field that is reaching from one side to another.

READ MORE: 'Cosmic chaos' captured as new star forms

'Zoo of features'

The "solar snake" isn't the first celestial animal this solar orbiter has spotted.

In March 2022, the ESA released footage of another plasma formation, this time capturing a so-called "solar hedgehog".

According to the ESA, these images are particularly intriguing because they began from a solar active region that later erupted, ejecting billions of tonnes of plasma into space.

This raises the possibility that the snake was a sort of precursor to this event – and the Solar Orbiter caught it all in numerous instruments.

READ MORE: Chinese president confronts Trudeau at the G-20

READ MORE: Australia records 50C temperature swing in just hours

The mission's head scientist explained the snaking motion.

"You're getting plasma flowing from one side to the other but the magnetic field is really twisted," David Long, from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL), said.

Long is heading up the investigation into the phenomenon.

He hopes the mission "will allow a better understanding to be developed of solar activity and the way it creates 'space weather', which can disrupt satellites and other technology on Earth".

The Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA.

It launched on February 10, 2020, and earlier this month celebrated its 1000th day in space.