A giant sunspot and Mercury’s silent scream
7 May 2012, 19:10 UTC
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
A new sunspot group calls our attention today. Region 1476 rotated around the sun’s eastern limb this weekend and it’s already large enough to see through a safe solar filter with the naked eye. Just how big is it? Try … Continue reading →
New sunspot group 1476 dominates the sun's eastern hemisphere today. This photo was taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory earlier this morning. Credit: NASA
A new sunspot group calls our attention today. Region 1476 rotated around the sun’s eastern limb this weekend and it’s already large enough to see through a safe solar filter with the naked eye. Just how big is it? Try about 62,000 miles or nearly 8 Earths lined up side by side.
Rick Klawitter of Port Angeles, Wash. took this wonderful shot of sunrise in in early April. It took two years of planning to capture just the right angle.
The group’s been sputtering away with M-class flares, none of which is directed toward Earth, but so long as the group grows and its complicated magnetic field persists, we may be in for some fireworks later this week. The sun’s rotation will carry the group into a better lineup with Earth by ...
