July 26, 2004
You are a way for the cosmos to know itself, Carl Sagan once said. On your birthday, the cosmos got to know itself a little better.
A Large Active Region Crosses the Sun
Birthday · July 26, 2004
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APOD published July 26, 2004. Credit: Jack Newton. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
An unexpectedly large sunspot region is now crossing the Sun. The active region is home to rivers of hot plasma, explosive flares, strong magnetic fields, a powerful Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), and a sunspot group so large it can be seen by the protected eye without magnification. In fact, this region appears larger than Venus did when it crossed the Sun last month. Pictured above is a close-up of this sunspot group, officially tagged AR 10652, taken just four days ago. The region is now nearing the Sun's eastern limb and will disappear from view in a few days. Energetic ions from sunspot group 652 continue to impact the Earth and create rare purple auroras.
Image credit: Jack Newton