Giant Sunspot Turns to Face the Earth

By Nancy Atkinson - November 10, 2011 at 11:29 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy
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What has been billed as the largest sunspot observed in several years has now rotated around to stare straight at Earth. How large is it? Active Region 1339 and the group of sunspots adjacent to it extends more than 100,000 km from end to end and each of the several dark cores is larger than Earth. The now very active Sun has already blasted out several medium- to large-sized solar flares and has the potential to hurl out more.

And the Sun is now dotted with several smaller sunspots as well. Above is an amazing image of all this activity, as captured by astrophotographer Alan Friedman. "This has been a glorious week for solar observers!" Friedman said. "Led by large sunspot region AR1339, the sun's disk is alive with activity... the most dynamic show in many years."

Take a look below for an incredible closeup of AR1339 taken by Friedman, as well as a movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory showing the sunspots rotating into view.

Click on the image for a larger version on Friedman's website,

AvertedImagination.com

From all this activity, there may be a good chance for viewing aurorae. On November 9 at around 1330 UT, a magnetic filament in the vicinity of sunspot complex 1342-1343 erupted, producing a M1-class solar flare and hurling a CME into space, which will probably deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Nov 11 or 12, according to

SpaceWeather.com

[caption id="attachment_90873" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="A portrait of Active Region 1339 in the wavelength of hydrogen alpha light showing the large sunspot group and the maelstrom of chromosphere that surrounds it. Credit Alan Friedman"]

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And here's an image from astrophotographer Raymond Gilchrist showing a labeled version of all the current sunspots: 1338, 1339, 1340, 1341, 1342, 1343, 1344.

[caption id="attachment_90875" align="aligncenter" width="572" caption="The 'spotty' Sun on Nov. 10, 2011. Credit: Raymond Gilchrist. Click for version on Flickr."]

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Raymond used a Baader Solar Continuum Filter and Thousand Oaks Full Solar Filter with a Skywatcher 120mm S/T Refractor, with a Canon 350D, 1/15th Sec Exp. at ISO400. You can see more of his images at

his Flickr page

.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com