On an otherwise featureless disk, a large sunspot has gathered itself together and is kicking up strong solar flares
A sunspot has grown to six times the size of Earth and is at the center of
the Sun, directly facing our planet. It has a chance of producing a major flare,
scientists said.
The sunspot, numbered 536 and seen here yesterday
by the SOHO
spacecraft, has the potential to unleash
an (X-class) flare, the most intense sort. Such events sometimes trigger expulsions
of charged particles, called coronal mass ejections, that can damage spacecraft
and threaten terrestrial power systems.
The sunspot generated a medium (M-class) flare Tuesday.
Another sunspot, Number 537, is just peeking around the left side of the rotating Sun. It was the site of two M-class flares yesterday.
The new spots and eruptions represent some of the
most significant activity on the Sun since a spate of phenomenal
outbursts in late October and early November.
In those events -- a string of 10 major flares -- several spacecraft were affected,
including those
en route to Mars. Two Japanese satellites
were lost. The sunspots responsible then were more than twice as large as Number
536.
Scientists cannot say for sure whether the current sunspots will kick up any major flares, but NOAA's Space Environment Center has put the odds at 20 percent through Friday. [Top 10 SOHO Images]
-- Robert
Roy Britt
Credit: SOHO/NASA/ESA
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