The video, captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory showed a mysterious dark object – the size of Jupiter – which looked like it was pulling energy from the Solar System’s biggest star. It soon gained popularity online, with the bizarre blob being sensationally dubbed a ’Death Star’ due to its similarity in appearance to the huge ominous space station seen in Star Wars. But, amazingly, leading scientists did not throw the theory out, claiming the fundamental idea of using the Sun to fuel a huge spacecraft was not only feasible, but quite a good idea.
The analysis was revealed during the Science Channel’s “NASA’s Unexplained Files,” where nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman exclaimed: “What the heck is that?”
The narrator said in 2014: “In March 2012, astronomers monitoring images from a solar telescope in Earth’s orbit see something ominous to the west of the Sun’s South Pole.
“Planet sized tentacles appear to connect the globe of darkness to the Sun’s surface.
“This connection fuels speculation that this presence near our star is no coincidence.
“The Sun burns hydrogen, the perfect fuel for a starship.
“But the three million-degree temperatures in the Sun’s atmosphere would destroy any human technology.”
Dr David Brin, a scientist who serves on the advisory board for NASA, claimed: “Why would anybody visit the Sun? Well, it might be a good place to refuel.”
Author Dr Bill Birnes came up with a more lurid explanation.
He added: “Could spaceships be re-fuelling by getting as close as possible to stars and taking their energy to fuel them through space?
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However, NASA claimed they had solved the mystery.
The series explained: “It’s an incredible idea, too incredible for NASA, who came up with their own information regarding the black ore, with an equally astonishing phenomenon.
“The tentacles were prominences, clouds of hydrogen clinging to the edge of the Sun’s atmosphere.
“And the Death Star itself was a solar magnetic bubble – the size of Jupiter – full of super-hot plasma.
“The only thing holding the ball in place is the magnetic field, which can shift at any moment.”
Solar physicist Dr Todd Hoeksema said this kind of event probably happens all the time but goes unnoticed.
He stated: “It was a magnetic bubble that looked like a Death Star.
“Eventually these erupt and that’s what we are seeing at the end, this eruption into space.
“Even though we don’t see it on Earth, there are huge eruptions going on in the Sun all the time.”
