On the nearside of the Sun, a huge region of sunspots consisting of at least six different groups of sunspots has emerged. This dark patch archipelago is releasing solar flares at an unprecedented rate. Earth may soon be within the archipelago's firing line.
Sunspot Archipelago
This sunspot archipelago is one of the biggest and most densely populated regions for sunspots that has been observed in over a decade. It has surfaced on the side of the Sun that is near to Earth.
The region has also started to release solar storms that are remarkably shaking up the surface of the Sun. The emergence of the archipelago will make it quite interesting for Earth as the planet is set to be within its firing line.
AR3490, the first sunspot group, rotated onto the nearside of the Sun last November 18. It specifically did so over the northeastern shoulder of the Sun. The sunspot group AR3491 was quickly following it.
The travel of sunspot groups was something that scientists were already aware of. This was because these specialists had been monitoring helioseismic tremors, which refer to ripples over the solar surface, from the region. The region of sunspots was observed to be remarkably large to the point where it affects the vibration of the entire Sun.
Ever since their emergence, the groups of sunspots ended up splitting up and fostering the birth of new ones. These include AR3497, AR3496, AR 3495, and AR3492. This then led to the creation of a sunspot archipelago.
As a whole, the huge sunspot archipelago stretches 200,000 kilometers in width. This makes it 15 times wider compared to Earth.
There have also been at least three groups of sunspots that emerged in the southern hemisphere in the past few days. The emergence of these sunspots are the latest signs of the Sun's fast approach to solar maximum, the peak of its 11-year cycle.
Solar Flare Bombardment
In the last four days, the solar archipelago has already released at least 3 M-Class and 16 C-class solar flares, which are the second and third strongest types of solar flares, respectively. Experts also caution that more flares could surface in the coming weeks. It is also possible that the region would expel X-class flares, which are the strongest class.
The flares could also lead to the birth of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are massive blasts of solar particles that are charged. These CMEs could slam onto the Earth and cause geomagnetic storms, which, in turn, lead to aurora borealis displays and radio blackouts.
Aside from this, plasma loops called solar prominences have also been seen to grow above some groups of sunspots. The largest ones are towering at an altitude of 64,000 kilometers and may end up snapping off and flying into space anytime. If it does so, it would temporarily leave huge fire canyons across the solar surface.
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