Right now, one of the largest sunspot groups in recent history is crossing the Sun.
Active Region 4478 is not only big -- it's violent, showing tangled magnetic fields capable of throwing off huge clouds of particles into the
Solar System.
Some of these
CMEs might impact the Earth.
At the extreme, these
solar storms could cause some
Earth-orbiting satellites to malfunction,
the
Earth's atmosphere to slightly distort, and
electrical power grids to surge.
When impacting
Earth's upper atmosphere,
these particles can produce
beautiful auroras.
Pictured here,
AR 4478 and its dark
sunspots
were captured in visible light a few days ago from
Barcelona,
Spain.
Almost as large as
AR 3664 was in 2024, the
AR 4478 sunspot group is so big that it is
visible just with glasses specially designed to view
solar eclipses.
This week,
skygazing enthusiasts all over the globe will not only be tracking AR 4478 during the day -- but keenly watching night skies for its
corresponding bright auroras.