With just a pair of protective solar viewing glasses, you can clearly observe a massive “black spot” in the Sun, which is a “cosmic gun barrel” set to disappear on July 2.
According to Space, this peculiar “black spot” is known as “sunspot”, a region of continuous disturbance emitting strong magnetic flares.
This sunspot, named AR3354, has only recently appeared and is quite small. Just two days ago, it was barely visible as a tiny dot, but it has rapidly expanded over the last 24 hours and is estimated to have grown to seven times the size of Earth by the evening of June 30 (Vietnam time).
The enormous “black spot” recently observed on the Sun has a diameter seven times that of Earth – (Photo: SDO/NASA).
AR3354 will quickly disappear from view on July 2.
This weekend, as the sunspot rotates toward Earth, there is a high likelihood that it will emit such flares directed at our planet. However, there is no need to worry about it heading straight for us while observing, as we typically do not feel these solar blasts.
These flares will impact our planet through geomagnetic storms, which occur when they collide with Earth’s magnetic field lines.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), starting from June 28, this sunspot began releasing flares, most of which are medium-sized (type M).
Geomagnetic storms resulting from these flares may cause brief disruptions to shortwave radio signals in certain areas on Earth.
Despite its impressive size, data indicates that there will not be a geomagnetic storm as severe as the famous Carrington Event of 1859, which could knock out power grids and cause widespread shortwave radio outages.
The Carrington Event is well-known for temporarily blinding amateur astronomer Richard Carrington, who inadvertently looked at it without protective glasses, and his name has since been used to designate the event. Thus, the most essential thing when observing the sunspot is not to forget your protective glasses – the kind used for solar viewing.
