TORONTO – Those who will be able to see the partial solar eclipse at sunset Thursday will also get an added bonus — an enormous sunspot that has now turned towards Earth.
The sunspot is about the size of Jupiter, about 125,000 km wide. With eclipse glasses, it is clearly visible on the surface.
The huge sunspot — designated 2192 — is an area that has an unstable magnetic field on the surface of the sun, called the photosphere (sunspots are cooler regions are still a whopping 6,380 degrees Kelvin, more than 3,500 degrees cooler than the surface).
This instability causes it to unleash solar flares, which then can lead to coronal mass ejections. When those particles blast out from the sun, they travel along the solar wind, reaching Earth and interacting with our magnetosphere. Though they can be dangerous — to astronauts and satellites if they’re strong enough — they’re also beautiful, as these particles are responsible for the northern lights.
So far sunspot 2192 has unleashed two X-class flares — the strongest on the scale — and a few weaker M-class flares. If this action continues, we could be in for quite a light show over the next few days.
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