The spots appeared on the side facing Earth. The first one was observed on November 18 and was designated AR3490. Not much later, another group of spots appeared, marked with the next serial number, i.e. AR3491. For scientists, the appearance of spots on the Sun was not a surprise, because they had been observing shocks and cracks on the surface for some time. The sunspots are so large that they cause the entire Sun to vibrate.
Huge spots appeared in the sun
As the spots grew, they split and gave rise to the following spots: AR3492, AR3495, AR3496 and AR3497. Three suddenly became nine, and together they formed the “sunspot archipelago”, which covers an area with a diameter of 200,000. kilometers. This is 15 times larger than the diameter of the Earth.
These are probably the largest sunspots I have seen so far in the ongoing solar cycle. The next 14 days could be very interesting
– wrote on X Chris Wicklund, meteorologist and photographer.
The spots have already produced 16 C-class solar flares and three M-class solar flares. These are the third and second classes of flares, respectively. There may be more in the coming weeks. Their power will probably increase, enough to qualify some of them for the highest category – This may, in turn, result in interruptions in radio signal reception and the appearance of strong aurora borealis.
The sun is approaching its maximum
Sunspots have also recently appeared in the southern hemisphere. Their growing number is a signal that the Sun is getting closer to the maximum of its 11-year cycle. This is scheduled to be completed next year. Then the accumulation and size of sunspots increases as a result of the entanglement of their magnetic fields.
Source: Gazeta
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