Despite a few forecasts of minor geomagnetic storms in recent days, the sun has remained relatively quiet over the past few months. That could all change in days with the discovery of one of the biggest sunspot regions in years on the far side of the sun.
It was spotted by the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft, which can image the side of the sun facing away from Earth. That’s critical because the sun rotates roughly every 27 days, so whatever is seen on the far side will shortly face Earth.
What Are Sunspots?
Sunspots are regions of intense, complex magnetic fields that produce solar eruptions, according to NASA. That means solar flares, several of which have already been recorded coming from the far-side sunspot, which was imaged by Solar Orbiter’s X-ray instruments on May 18. According to Spaceweather.com, two X1-class flares and a dozen M-class flares were detected from May 15-16, though none have been detected since. Solar flares are intense bursts of radiation that travel at the speed of light.
In their wake, coronal mass ejections — vast clouds of charged particles — have also been detected being hurled into the solar system. CMEs travel more slowly than solar flares, but as they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, they can cause geomagnetic storms on Earth, which often spark displays of the northern and southern lights.
Sunspot Seen From Mars
The huge sunspot region, which is expected to remain active as it turns to face Earth from May 22 onwards, was also spotted on test images taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. The rover frequently uses its Mastcam-Z to capture images of the sun to help scientists assess the amount of dust in the atmosphere, according to NASA. In doing so, it often captures sunspots.
The uptick in solar activity comes as the sun wanes from its “solar maximum” period — the peak of its roughly 11-year cycle when its magnetic activity intensifies. Scientists at NOAA and NASA estimate the solar maximum occurred in October 2024, though the tail of the peak can bring intense magnetic activity.
What Is Solar Orbiter?
The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft was launched in February 2020 to take the first-ever close-up images of the sun. In June 2025, it sent back humanity’s first clear images of the sun’s south pole. The unique views of the sun were captured on March 16-17, when Solar Orbiter was orbiting the sun from 15 degrees below the solar equator, enabling it to peek at the sun’s south pole for the first time. Until then, almost all images of the sun had been taken from the same point of view from Earth, or from its vicinity.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
