APOD: 2023 July 11 Б Sunspots on an Active Sun
Explanation:
Why is our Sun so
active now?
No one is sure.
An increase in surface activity was expected because
our Sun
is approaching
solar maximum in 2025.
However, last month our Sun sprouted more
sunspots than in any month during the entire previous
11-year solar cycle -- and even dating back to 2002.
The
featured picture is a composite of images taken
every day from January to June by
NASA's
Solar Dynamic Observatory.
Showing a high abundance of sunspots, large individual spots can be
tracked across the Sun's disk, left to right, over about two weeks.
As a solar cycle continues, sunspots typically
appear closer to the equator.
Sunspots are just one way that our Sun displays
surface activity -- another is
flares and
coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that expel particles out into the
Solar System.
Since these
particles can affect astronauts and electronics,
tracking surface disturbances is of more than
aesthetic value.
Conversely,
solar activity can have very high aesthetic value -- in the Earth's atmosphere
when they trigger aurora.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
