Sunspot AR3310, a dark patch on the Sun facing Earth, is so large that it can be seen from Earth without a telescope.
Sunspot AR3310 is four times larger than Earth. Photo: Bum-Suk Yeom
South Korean astronomer Bum-Suk Yeom shared an image showing the scale between the sunspot AR3310 and the blue planet. "The sunspot seen with the naked eye and a solar telescope (or solar filter). It is located to the left of the center of the solar disk," Yeom wrote in a social media post on May 23.
Sunspots appear dark because they are cooler than other areas of the Sun's surface, according to NASA. Sunspots are cooler because they form where strong magnetic fields prevent heat from the Sun's interior from reaching the surface. Sunspots are sometimes large enough to be seen with the naked eye without a telescope, but you still need to protect your eyes from the intense glare.
"The estimated minimum visibility threshold is about 425 parts per million of the visible solar disk (0.04% of the solar disk). The large sunspot area and favorable meteorological conditions will increase the likelihood of seeing them," said Hisashi Hayakawa, a physicist at Nagoya University in Japan.
The Earth's surface area covers only about 169 millionths of the Sun's disk. Bum-Suk estimates that sunspot AR3310 is about four times the size of Earth.
Sunspots can release solar flares – sudden bursts of energy. Solar flares are classified into classes: A, B, C, M, and the most powerful is class X. The larger and more complex the sunspot, the more likely it is to produce a solar flare.
Class C solar flares are too weak to have a significant impact on Earth, while class M flares can disrupt radio communications at the poles. Class X flares can impact satellites, communications systems, power grids, and, in the most serious cases, cause power shortages or blackouts.
Thu Thao (According to Newsweek )
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