The Australian info The Sun is a hot mess right now. Solar optimum is quick approaching, and a giant dark area on the surfacearea of the Sun keeps growing while gushing radiation out to area in the procedure. Sunspot R3664 now extends throughout almost 124,300 miles (200,000 kilometers), practically as huge as the sunspot that appeared on the Sun’s surfacearea throughout the Carrington Event—the most extreme geomagnetic storm ever taped, according to Space Weather. The sunspot is now around 15 times bigger than Earth, significantly endingupbeing one of the most active areas on the Sun throughout this solar cycle. The sunspot is so big that it can be seen with eclipse glasses if you’ve still got those lying around. If you do so, be sure to follow stringent security standards to prevent harmful your eyes. The sunspot is presently situated in the Sun’s bottom right quadrant. “R3664 hasactually grown substantially and hasactually endedupbeing much more magnetically complex,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center reported on Tuesday. “This has led to increased solar flare likelihoods over the next anumberof days.” Earlier this earlymorning, the center reported another solar flare emerging from the Sun that peaked at 5: 13 a.m. ET. Solar flares are classified by their strength, beginning at B-class, which are the weakest, all the method up to the greatest, the X-class. Thursday’s flare was categorized as a strong X2.2 flare, and it was produced from the R3664 sunspot. Sunspots are areas on the Sun where the magnetic field is about 2,500 times morepowerful than Earth’s, and much greater than anywhere else on the Sun, according to NOAA. They normally happen in sets and consist of a dark area, called the umbra, surrounded by a lighter area, the penumbra. Meanwhile, solar flares take location near the sunspots as hot matter connects with the magnetic field, strongly ejecting a burst of plasma
Read More.
