An analysis of its surface reveals massive sunspot feature

May 8, 2012 12:42 GMT  ·  By

Solar physicists and space weather experts expect some powerful storms to be generated by the Sun over the coming days or weeks. They have recently observed a massive sunspot on the surface of the star, which may start producing solar flares at any moment.

Dubbed AR 1476, the sunspot cluster is made up of at least 4 cores, each of which is larger than our planet. It is possible that future observations will reveal many other cores, some of them potentially larger than Earth, and some smaller.

Together, these cores form a very powerful sunspot complex that was recently seen by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument aboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The device had no trouble analyzing the 60,000-mile (100,000-kilometer) complex.

Scientists say that sunspots are dark patches on the surface of the Sun, which are most likely caused by extreme magnetic activity going on right underneath the surface. When these magnetic fields give way, solar flares are produced. These events release a lot of high-energy radiations.

In some instances, these radiations are headed towards Earth, where they can fry satellites in orbit, destroy transformers on the surface and endanger the lives of astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Space reports.

Most of the radiations are stopped from reaching the surface by the magnetosphere, which is our planet's electromagnetic defense system. However, the charged particles flow along magnetic field lines, a phenomenon that leads to the development of auroras.

Over the past few days, astronomers say, numerous C- and M-class solar flares have been produced from AR 1476. On Monday evening, a coronal mass ejection (CME) was discovered to be heading for Earth. The particles are scheduled to impact the planet sometime on Wednesday morning.

Between 2005 and 2010, the Sun was uncharacteristically quiet, producing very few solar flares or CME. At this point, its level of activity is increasing, in anticipation of the solar maximum, in 2013.

The star operates on an 11-year cycle, where periods of intense activity alternate with periods where not much is going on. These periods are called solar maximums and solar minimums, respectively.