A giant heart-shaped coronal hole, many times larger than Earth, opened up on the side of the sun that was facing us. The phrase “coronal hole” might sound dramatic, but it doesn’t mean the sun has torn itself open. In mid-September, this heart-shaped hole was strong enough to whip up a geomagnetic storm, lighting up high-latitude skies with shimmering colors. Still, a report from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggests something unexpected: since 2008, the solar wind has been steadily strengthening. A rare heart-shaped hole opened on the Sun this week, sending streams of solar wind toward Earth .