NASA discovers sunspot so big it can be seen from Mars that could release solar storms that knock out Earth’s power grids next WEEK
NASA has identified a giant sunspot on the sun that will likely continue to grow and move across its surface until it faces Earth next week.
Experts have warned that the dark region, which is cooler than the surrounding area, could create energetic explosions that could knock out our planet’s power grids.
The sunspot’s exact measurements are unknown, but NASA’s Perseverance rover captured images of the spot as it lies over 150 million miles from the sun.
The rover observed the sunspot from August 17 to 20 while exploring the Jezero crater on the Red Planet.
The exact measurements of the sunspot are unknown, but NASA’s rover was able to image it while it was more than 150 million miles from the sun.
‘BBecause Mars orbits the opposite side of the sun, Perseverance can see approaching sunspots well over a week ahead of us. Consider this your week-long warning: A big sunspot is coming,” Spaceweather shared in a blog post.
Converted to animation, the images show a dim sun hanging in the darkness of space, with a hazy, dark formation moving across its surface.
“It takes a large sunspot to show up in these low-resolution images,” says Spaceweather.
Sunspots form when the sun’s magnetic field is about 2,500 times stronger than Earth’s.
Due to the strong magnetic field, the magnetic pressure increases while the surrounding atmospheric pressure decreases.
This lowers its temperature relative to its surroundings because the concentrated magnetic field prevents the flow of hot, new gas from the Sun’s interior to the surface.
Converted to animation, the images show a dim sun hanging in the darkness of space with a hazy, dark formation moving across its surface.
And sunspots appear dark because they are at least 4,000 degrees F cooler than the surrounding area.
However, the sun’s outer atmosphere can reach over a million degrees.
NASA shared stunning images of our giant star in February, showing the temperature range around it.
Using the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), the US Space Agency has captured several X-rays emitted by the hottest material in our star’s atmosphere.
High-energy X-rays were observed at only a few locations, while low-energy X-rays and ultraviolet light were observed over the entire surface of the gas ball.
Scientists hope the new insights will help them solve one of the sun’s greatest mysteries: why the outer atmosphere reaches more than a million degrees — at least 100 times hotter than the surface.