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(Facebook/Astronomy Lovers )
The image also appeared on social media platforms including Instagram, Threads, X and YouTube.
Despite what many captions claimed, the image was not a NASA photo. NASA Heliophysics Public Affairs Officer Abbey Interrante emailed Snopes to say that the photo was "not a NASA image," noting, "Any official NASA news or imagery will be shared via an official agency communications channel." As a result, we've rated the image miscaptioned.
A reverse image search using Google Lens found that the image was in fact the work of astrophotographer Jason Guenzel, who shared it in an Instagram post (archived) on January 12, 2021.
Guenzel confirmed over Instagram message that he personally created the image. He also noted that the image was not an unedited photo — instead, he digitally processed it to "accentuate features that follow the magnetic field lines of the Sun," a choice he described as a "creative decision to make these features more visible and prominent."
Guenzel further explained his creative decisions in the caption to his Instagram post, which read in part, "This session on the Sun was marred by sub-par atmospheric conditions leaving a loss of contrast and detail. I took this opportunity to heavily process the resulting image into a stylized rendition of the visible surface of the sun."
Many of the versions that circulated on social media showed evidence of further editing beyond what Guenzel did. Specifically, the color balance was exaggerated in many examples, and some of the images were flipped — possibly an attempt to trick reverse-image search engines.
We've previously examined other images internet users attributed to NASA, such as one allegedly showing the Helix Nebula.