Two groups of spots Sun a new large size appears on the surface of the Sun. So large, these sunspots extend beyond Earth.
Known as the ‘active regions’ 2993 and 2994 (AR2993 and AR2994), this new group of sunspots also appears to be followed by a third group of sunspots hidden behind the northeastern region of the Sun, which appears to have caused a strong solar flare a few days ago.
Each of these groups of spots is made up of several sunspots and covers an area of hundreds of millions of square kilometers, which is much larger than the diameter of the Earth.
Sunspots are caused by magnetic disturbances in the Sun’s photosphere, the part of which shows the relatively cooler layer beneath.
Furthermore, the binding and detachment of the Sun’s magnetism occurs in 11-year cycles, with each solar cycle having a phase of low and high activity. The cycle of solar activity has been numbered since 1775, when the recording of sunspot activity began.
The solar cycle itself is related to the appearance of sunspot activity. Currently, he said, Solar Cycle 25 has not yet reached its peak. This means that there will be more sunspot activity in the future.
“I’m sure we’ll see [wilayah aktif] larger ones over the next few years,” said solar physicist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Live Science.
“Active regions 2993 and 2994 are moderate in size and do not represent the largest that Solar Cycle 25 can produce,” he added.
Pesnell said the current cycle is expected to reach maximum activity in late 2024 or early 2025. Energy from the Sun’s active region can be released as radiation (solar flares) and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are balls of superheated plasma.
Solar flares and such CMEs can create beautiful aurorae, but they can also pose a hazard to power grids, satellites, communications networks, and potentially even space explorers beyond the protection of Earth’s magnetic field.
(lom / fea)
–
