Scientists have detected a rapidly growing sunspot that’s pointed directly
at Earth and could launch an assault of solar energy our way in the coming
days.
The sunspot, named AR3085 for the "active region" of the sun in which it
appeared, was barely a blip several days ago. Now, it has grown 10 times
bigger, morphing into a pair of sunspots that each measure nearly the
diameter of Earth, according to SpaceWeather.com. This short gif shows the
spot's evolution over about two days.
A number of solar flares — large explosions of electromagnetic radiation
that snap off from the sun's surface and launch outward into space— have
been detected "crackling" around the spot, according to SpaceWeather.
Fortunately, they are all currently C-class flares, which fit into the
weakest of the three tiers of solar flares that government satellites track.
A-, B- and C-class flares are generally too weak to have a noticeable impact
on Earth. M-class flares are stronger, capable of causing radio blackouts at
high latitudes, while X-class flares are the strongest and can cause
widespread radio blackouts, damage satellites and knock out ground-based
power grids, according to NASA.
If the spots continue to grow over the coming days, they could produce
stronger flares that could barrel toward Earth, potentially endangering
satellites and communication systems. For now, however, there is no imminent
danger.
Sunspots are large, dark regions of strong magnetic fields that form on the
sun's surface. These regions — which typically measure as wide as planets —
appear darker because they are cooler than their surroundings, according to
Live Science's sister site Space.com. They form where bands of the sun's
magnetic field become tangled and taut, inhibiting the flow of hot gas from
the sun's interior and forming cooler, darker regions on the sun's surface.
These pile-ups of magnetic energy often lead to solar flares. The more
sunspots that appear on the sun at a given time, the more likely solar
flares are to erupt.
The prevalence of both sunspots and solar flares are linked to the sun's
11-year cycle of activity, which transitions between periods of high and low
sunspot density every decade or so. The next solar maximum — or the period
of highest sunspot activity — is predicted to hit in 2025, with as many as
115 sunspots likely to appear on the sun's surface during its days of peak
activity.
Solar activity has been ramping up over the last few years, with numerous
X-class flares swooping over our planet since spring 2022 — sometimes within
days of one another. The number of sunspots and solar flares will likely
increase as time ticks toward the next solar maximum.
Originally published on Live Science.
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Space & Astrophysics