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Credit & Copyright: Jack Newton
Explanation:
An unexpectedly large sunspot region is now crossing the Sun.
The active region is home to rivers of hot
plasma, explosive
flares,
strong magnetic fields, a powerful
Coronal Mass Ejection
(CME), and a
sunspot group
so large it can be seen by the protected eye without magnification.
In fact,
this region appears larger than
Venus did when it crossed the Sun last month.
Pictured above is a close-up of this
sunspot group, officially tagged
AR 10652, taken just four days ago.
The region is now nearing the
Sun's eastern limb and will
disappear from view in a few days.
Energetic ions from sunspot group 652 continue to impact the
Earth and create rare
purple auroras.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Sun - sunspot - active region
Publications with words: Sun - sunspot - active region
See also: