Solar Activity is Picking Up

By Nancy Atkinson - December 16, 2009 at 1:36 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy
Sun.jpg

The current solar cycle (24) has been pretty boring, but a new sunspot -- 1035 -- is growing rapidly and now is seven times wider than Earth. Solar astronomers are predicting it could grow to be the largest sunspot of the year. There's not been a lot of competition for the biggest sunspot, though: for 259 days (or 74%) of 2009, the sun has been spotless. But maybe the (solar) tide is turning. There's been other action recently besides the new sunspot. A long-duration C4-class solar flare erupted this morning at 0120 UT from around the sunspot, which hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth. (See below for image of the CME that blasted off the sun on Dec. 14) Observers at high-latitude could see some aurora action when the CME arrives on or about Dec. 18th. Keep cheering; maybe the sun will come out of its doldrums.

[caption id="attachment_47766" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

CME on Dec. 14, 2009. Credit: NASA, SoHO[/caption]

Remember, don't look at the Sun directly to try and see the sunspot. NASA has a great site that gives real-time data and updated images of the Sun from

SoHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.)

Or check out

Spaceweather.com,

which also provides updates. And if you have a safe way of observing and imaging the sunspot, feel free to post images here, or send to

Nancy.

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