A massive sunspot, large enough to be seen from the surface of Mars, is turning toward Earth, scientists revealed Thursday.
Sunspot group AR3576 stretches more than 124,274 miles across the sun, and contains at least four dark cores larger than planet Earth, Spaceweather reported. The group was large enough to be seen from Mars by NASA’s Perseverance Rover in early February, and is now turning toward us.
The sunspot is only forecast to cause a G1-class geomagnetic storm on Friday, the lowest on the scale. But it’ll still pass pretty close to Earth, so it’s a “coin-flip forecast” where we could either experience a near-miss or a “glancing blow,” which could easily prove devastating.
THE MARTIAN SUNSPOT IS FACING EARTH: A sunspot so big it was seen last week as far away as Mars has now turned to face Earth. NASA’s Perseverance rover photographed it from Jezero crater, and it has only grown bigger since then. Here’s how AR3576 looked yesterday from Argentina: pic.twitter.com/C76VBlxDEv
— JimeV Augmented Mouse (@Jelwoodv) February 8, 2024
“The view was fantastic,” Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, who photographed the sunspots through a solar-filtered telescope in Argentina, told the forecaster. “AR3576 appeared as a large archipelago containing a multitude of dark cores.” And if you have the right viewing equipment, you can see it for yourself from your own home, Space noted.
Solar activity is anticipated to ramp up throughout 2024 and into 2025 as we enter a time of high cosmic activity. The sun goes through a “solar maximum” every 11 or so years, with high levels of activity observed during the peak. (RELATED: ‘100% Probability’ Major Global Catastrophe Destroys All Technology, Dennis Quaid Explains To Tucker Carlson)
Historical solar activity sheds light on the serious threats to human activity. Though a massive solar storm isn’t known to influence global weather or climate patterns, the materials spewed at Earth during large events have the power to destroy all forms of electrical equipment housed above the ground. One bad cycle and the entire global population could be pushed back into the Dark Ages.