Earth-sized sunspots are moving across the face of the sun right now
After some relatively quite weeks, the sun has awakened again with a large group of sunspots moving across the Earth-facing side of our closest star.
The dark sunspots are active regions of the sun that can shoot out solar flares, radiation spewed out from the sun's surface which can sometimes unleash large bursts of solar plasma out into the solar system.
According to space scientist Karl Battams, the larger sunspots are about the size of the Earth, and the regions stretch across a part of the sun equal to the diameter of 16 Earths.
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The sun has been somewhat quiet recently, without many active regions cropping up on the star's Earth-directed side. This has led to misleading headlines that the sun has gone "blank."
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This could be because the sun is in a quiescent period of its approximately 11-year solar cycle.
The star reached what appears to be a maximum of activity about three years ago, but even then, the maximum was relatively weak by comparison to past cycles, producing fewer active regions than expected during such a peak period.
During solar minimum, the sun produces fewer solar flares and sunspots.
A number of satellites are tasked with staring at the sun on our behalf. The Solar Dynamics Observatory takes photos of the sun in various wavelengths of light, revealing features not seen in visible light alone.
You can keep an eye on everything the Solar Dynamics Observatory sees through NASA's data page for the mission.
Scientists keep a close eye on the sun, in part, because powerful flares from the star could deliver charged particles to Earth's atmosphere, creating incredible auroras in the high latitudes.
Very strong flares can also disrupt radio communication on the planet, or sometimes harm satellites in space. A particularly strong solar storm could even shut down parts of the power grid and disable communications and navigation equipment on Earth.
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Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
