It can be hard when you see pictures of sunspots to really grasp their size...which is why I like these kind of visualizations!

This is video captured by #SDO from July of 2017 -- and we can see the size of earth vs a sunspot!

How big/small to sunspots get?? Check out our most recent #podcast episode for the answer: https://starrytimepodcast.podbean.com/e/asterism-maria-mitchell-and-sunspots/

📹 :https://starrytimepodcast.podbean.com/e/asterism-maria-mitchell-and-sunspots/

#sunspot #NASA #Astronomy #astrodon #space #science #SDO #Solar #Sun #gif

☀️ 30 March 2026 The eruption came from a magnetically complex #sunspot group now rotating further into Earth's view — meaning any continued activity could have more direct impacts ☢️ on Earth and #Artemis 2 https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/powerful-x-class-solar-flare-triggers-radio-blackout-ahead-of-artemis-2-launch

#RadiationProtection #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceWeather

Powerful X-class solar flare triggers radio blackout ahead of Artemis 2 launch

An X1.4 solar flare triggered radio blackouts and launched a fast CME as NASA prepares for its Artemis 2 moon mission.

Space

I know I've shared this one a lot lately, but so help me I just love the energy of this piece, which I've been playing around with a bit; lo, a slightly softer and brighter version of my sci-fi caprice "Reach for the Light" (yes, those are solar sails in silhouette).

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #solarsail #spaceflight #scifi #sciencefiction #star #sun #sunspot #spaceart

Quick Astro Facts

YouTube

Oh I'm sure it'd take the mother of all tinted windows to stop it from blinding you, but imagine being on a solar sail, making a fly-by to gain speed to your final destination, and then seeing *this* out your window. The ultimate scenic route, in my own painting, "Reach for the light".

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #scifi #scifiart #spaceart #spaceflight #solarsail #spacecraft #sun #star #sunspot

Witnessing Magnetic Reconnection in Tangled Superpenumbral Fibrils around a Sunspot: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae12e9 -> Astronomers See Braided Magnetic Fields Above a #Sunspot: https://aasnova.org/2026/03/11/astronomers-see-braided-magnetic-fields-above-a-sunspot/
Witnessing Magnetic Reconnection in Tangled Superpenumbral Fibrils around a Sunspot

Witnessing Magnetic Reconnection in Tangled Superpenumbral Fibrils around a Sunspot, Chen, Hechao, Tian, Hui, Priest, Eric R., Prior, Christopher B., Xia, Chun, Yeates, Anthony R., Yan, Xiaoli, Duan, Yadan, Hou, Zhenyong, Huang, Zhenghua, Rice, Oliver E. K.

Behold #sunspot AR4366. It's huuuge! About 10 Earth diameters from left to right. It is facing almost straight to Earth, so if it goes boom we'll get to see some auroras again!
#astrophotography