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New footage shows an 'unstable sunspot' firing off solar eruptions during a stormy five-hour explosion of activity.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured the series of eruptions from the sunspot over the course of five hours on Tuesday, October 26.
Sunspots are areas that appear dark on the Sun's surface, because they are cooler than other parts areas (although they're still very hot, around 6,500°F).
Amazingly, these sunspots can become many times bigger than the whole of the Earth.
This recent series of eruptions occurred on the 'limb' of the Sun – its edge as seen from Earth – meaning it was pointed away from us.
But scientists should get a better glimpse of the region when it rotates into the view of our Earth in the next few days (the Sun rotates on its axis once in about 27 days).
SDO is a NASA satellite that has been observing the Sun since 2010, when it launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
'At least half a dozen explosions occurred during [SDO's] brief movie,' reported space tracking site SpaceWeather, as quoted by Space.com.
'The blast site is hidden just behind the edge of the Sun. It's almost certainly an unstable sunspot.'
Imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the series of eruptions from the sunspot
Sunspots are areas that appear dark on the Sun's surface. They form at areas where magnetic fields are particularly strong. So they're the visual markers of where powerful magnetic fields have emerged from the Sun's interior
Interestingly, sunspots are only dark in contrast to the bright face of the Sun.
If you could cut an average sunspot out of the Sun and place it elsewhere in the night sky, it would be about as bright as a full moon.
Sunspots form at areas where magnetic fields are particularly strong – so strong that they keep some of
