Photos: Solar Flares From Giant Sunspot AR1520

News
By published

Sunspot AR 1520 #1

Dale Mayotte

Astrophotographer Dale Mayotte took this photo of sunspot AR 1520 in Clinton Township, MI, on July 11, 2012.

Sunspot AR 1520 #2

Dale Mayotte

Astrophotographer Dale Mayotte took this photo of sunspot AR 1520 in Clinton Township, MI, on July 11, 2012.

Sunspot AR 1520 #3

Dale Mayotte

Astrophotographer Dale Mayotte took this photo of sunspot AR 1520 in Clinton Township, MI, on July 11, 2012.

Sunspot AR 1520 #4

Dale Mayotte

Astrophotographer Dale Mayotte took this photo of sunspot AR 1520 in Clinton Township, MI, on July 11, 2012.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor. 

More about science astronomy

James Webb Space Telescope finds a wild black hole growth spurt in galaxies at 'cosmic noon'

Can Hubble still hang? How the space telescope compares to its successors after 35 years of cosmic adventures

Newly launched NASA satellites open eyes to start studying 'auroral electrojets' in Earth's atmosphere
See more latest
Most Popular
An illustration of three satellites above Earth looking down at bright green auroras.
Newly launched NASA satellites open eyes to start studying 'auroral electrojets' in Earth's atmosphere
A side by side showing the full sky view on the left. On the right, the galaxy is enlarged.
Scientists use the JWST to study an extremely ancient galaxy piercing through the Cosmic Dark Ages
Long-exposure photo of SpaceX's 250th dedicated Starlink launch, which took place from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on April 27, 2025.
SpaceX launches 250th Starlink satellite mission, lands rocket at sea (photos)
Artist's illustration showing a distant star going out of sight as it is eclipsed by Uranus – an event known as a planetary stellar occultation.
Uranus passed between Earth and a distant star this month — and NASA caught the rare event
Screenshot from Star Wars: Republic Commando
20 years ago, 'Star Wars: Republic Commando' made us care about the clones long before 'The Clone Wars' and 'The Bad Batch'
A building in NYC
Trump administration cancels lease for NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies lab in New York City
Saturn, Venus and Neptune come together in the eastern pre-dawn sky on April 28 to form a planetary triangle, with Mercury hugging the horizon to the left
Faint Neptune joins Venus and Saturn to form a planetary triangle in the pre-dawn sky on April 28
A giant chrome and red robot holding a framed certificate
Meet the 'Doctor Who' actors who brought the retrofuturistic robots to life for season 2's 'The Robot Revolution' (interview)
illustration of a silvery metallic rotorcraft flying over orangish dunes
NASA's Dragonfly nuclear-powered helicopter clears key hurdle ahead of 2028 launch toward huge Saturn moon Titan
Screenshots from the Doctor Who episodes "Midnight" and "The Well", showing David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor's respectively. Both look scared in the images as they look at something off-screen.
The new 'Doctor Who' episode 'The Well' is actually a sequel to a David Tennant classic