A sunspot so large it was seen from the surface of Mars is now facing Earth. The gargantuan sunspot group AR3576 from end to end stretches for more than 124,274 miles (200,000 kilometers) and contains at least four dark cores each larger than Earth, according to Spaceweather.com. It was imaged by NASA’s Perseverance Rover from the surface of Mars just last week. The sunspot is so big it can be seen from Earth without the need for complex viewing equipment. Just don a pair of certified eclipse glasses and look…
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Powerful solar flare unleashes colossal plasma plume, sparks radio blackouts across South Pacific (video)
A powerful solar flare erupted from a giant unstable sunspot last night, triggering radio blackouts on Earth and firing a hot plasma plume through the sun’s atmosphere at speeds of 900,000 mph (400 km/s). The long-duration solar flare from the sunspot region AR3575 began on Monday (Feb 5) at 8:30 p.m. EST (0130 GMT on Feb 6) and peaked at 10:15 EST (0315 GMT on Feb 6), according to solar physicist Keith Strong who posted details about the eruption on X. The eruption also released a coronal mass ejection (CME)…
Read MoreGhostly plasma loops linger on the sun after massive solar explosion (photos)
A series of gigantic yet eerily faint plasma loops temporarily rose above our home star’s surface after a powerful solar flare exploded from the sun on Monday, stunning new photos show. These loops linger like ghostly echoes of the departed solar storm, but scientists still don’t know exactly how the ethereal remnants take shape. On Monday (Jan. 29), a powerful 6.8 magnitude M-class solar flare — the second highest class of solar flares behind X-class flares — erupted from sunspot AR3559 as it began to disappear behind the sun‘s western…
Read MoreWatch the sun spew out a giant eruption of plasma in incredible footage (video)
[embedded content] Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “Skyscapes” that connect both Earth and the night sky. On Feb. 22, 2022, a gigantic solar prominence formed on the surface of the sun, blasting a large coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. Solar prominences, or filaments, are large loops of plasma flowing along twisted…
Read MoreSpace mysteries: Does the sun move in the solar system?
From an early age, we are taught to understand that the planets of our solar system change in position while orbiting a central star, the sun. But does the sun itself move within the solar system? Well, in general the sun is far from static in the universe. We know, for instance, that our star orbits the heart of the Milky Way at staggering speeds reaching 450,000 miles per hour (720,000 kilometers per hour) and dragging the whole solar system along with it. Over the course of the day, the…
Read MoreThis light-bending tech will let scientists see the sun like never before
To truly understand what makes the solar wind tick, heliophysicists must analyze the minuscule features on the sun‘s surface that help accelerate the star’s charged particles out through the solar system. And to perform that task with better precision, they need better ways of seeing in ultraviolet. Enter a technology called the photon sieve: a sort of lens that helps subtly bend ultraviolet light toward a camera. To be clear, a photon sieve is no ordinary lens; it is a cutting-edge work of engineering only possible with the most modern…
Read MoreWatch giant loop of plasma dance above the sun in stunning video
Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “Skyscapes” that connect both Earth and the night sky. A huge loop of plasma dances above the surface of the sun in a stunning timelapse captured by astrophotographer Miguel Claro. The feature, known as a solar prominence, was visible on…
Read MoreSun unleashes monster X-class solar flare, most powerful since 2017 (video)
The sun just gave us a reminder of its immense might. Our star unleashed an X-class solar flare today (Dec. 14), blasting out an immense pulse of high-energy radiation that was captured on video by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. (Solar physicists classify strong flares into three categories, with C being the weakest, M the middling group and X the most potent.) The outburst, which occurred at 12:02 p.m. EST (1702 GMT), registered as an X2.8, making it the most powerful solar flare since September 2017, according to SpaceWeather.com. Related:…
Read MoreSolar storms could affect train safety by glitching railroad signals
Safer train travel requires tracking solar storms, a new study urges. Powerful eruptions from the sun could cause accidents during peak train-travel times by interfering with electrical signaling stations, potentially switching railroad indicators from red (stop) to green (go), according to the research. “This is obviously very significant from a safety perspective,” study lead author Cameron Patterson, a physics researcher at Lancaster University in England, said in a statement on Monday (Dec. 11). “We found that space weather events, capable of triggering faults in these track circuits, are expected in…
Read MoreIndia’s Aditya-L1 solar observatory captures 1st gorgeous views of the sun (images)
An instrument onboard India’s first sun-studying observatory has officially opened its scientific eyes and sent home beautiful images of our star. The pictures, captured earlier this week by a payload named SUIT (short for Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope), reveal a handful of features on the sun’s surface, including a few sunspots, a solar “plage” and some silent, inactive areas. It is a “lifetime opportunity to conceive a space telescope & get to see its first light observations,” Durgesh Tripathi, SUIT’s principal investigator, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter)…
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