Tag: Sunspot Cycle

Sunspots Changing in Real Time

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It’s not fuzzy caterpillars or any small creatures interacting in a Petri dish.  The strange growing and twisting creatures are not creatures at all.  Today’s NASA APOD shows a time lapse view of a cluster of sunspots as they pass along the surface of the Sun during its rotation.  The total time is about 12 hours for the sunspots to cross the solar surface, yet the video is shortened to a quick minute and a half. The amazing thing to notice is the amazing dance of the sunspots as they shift, twist, merge, separate, and interact with the granular convection cells...

Huge Plasma Eruption from the Sun

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The two major solar observatories, SDO and SOHO, both saw a massive solar event in exceptional clarity.  Starting April 28th, a huge solar plasma loop broke away and was blasted millions of miles out into space from the surface of the Sun!  This massive outburst of energy comes during the peak of the 11-year solar activity cycle, and shows us just how incredible and energetic our home star can be. Solar filaments like the one that broke away are long chains of solar plasma, a state of matter where super-heated gas becomes stripped of its electrons.  The plasma filaments follow...