REALLY REALLY BIG

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REALLY BIG SUNSPOT ALERT: Yesterday, we issued a big sunspot alert. We were wrong. It's *really* big. This image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the behemoth emerging over the sun's southeastern limb on Nov. 30th:

NASA's Mars rover told us it was coming. Last week, Perserverance saw the giant sunspot through a cloud of dust in Jezero Crater. It was only days away from turning toward Earth--and now it is here.

From end to end, the sunspot group measures ~130,000 km, and at least four of the sunspot's primary dark cores are individually larger than Earth. These dimensions make it an easy target for safely-filtered backyard telescopes. If you don't have a solar filter, try this simple projection technique instead.

On Nov. 29th, amateur astronomer Andy Devey watched the sunspot's approach from his observatory near Mojácar, Spain:

"This is an almost three hour look at the active region rolling around the sun's eastern limb," says Devey. "It was sizzling with C-class solar flares."

On Nov. 28th, the sunspot produced an M6-class solar flare. However, the blast site was partially eclipsed by the edge of the sun. The flare's true intensity may have been X-class. Now that the sunspot is turning to face Earth, future flares will be geoeffective. Stay tuned!

more images: from David Wilson of Inverness, Scotland; from Shahrin Ahmad of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; from Astro Tafelberg of Austria; from Sylvain Weiller of Jerusalem, Israel;