Today's Image

Humayun’s Tomb and a monster sunspot

View larger. | Abhinav Singhai captured this image of Humayun's Tomb and the sunspot group AR1944 on January 8, 2014. Thank you, Abhinav!
View larger. | Abhinav Singhai captured this image of Humayun’s Tomb and the sunspot group AR1944 on January 8, 2014. Thank you, Abhinav! See more photos by Abhinav Singhai here.

Abhinav Singhai in Delhi, India combined the old and eternal – with the new and transient – when he captured this photo of Humayun’s Tomb and the sunspot group AR1944. See the sunspot? It’s a large, dark blotch on the setting sun. He wrote that the sunspot was:

… one of the largest sunspots in a decade. It’s so large that one can see it at the time of sunrise and sunset.

You should not try to see it, of course, without special filters to protect your eyes from permanent damage.

Enjoy the photo!

And, if you live at a northerly latitude, look outside when night falls. This sunspot group produced the most powerful category of solar flare – an X-flare – on Tuesday, January 7. The solar particles sent across space from that flare arrived in Earth’s vicinity on January 9. They might still be causing Earth’s magnetic field to be unsettled, creating beautiful displays of auroras, or northern lights for those at high latitudes.

Read more about the X-flare and possibility of auroras here.

Photo gallery: First auroras of 2014

Humanyan's Tomb in Delhi, India is a World Heritage Site. Image via Archaeological Survey of India.
Humanyan’s Tomb in Delhi, India is a World Heritage Site. Image via Archaeological Survey of India.
Posted 
January 10, 2014
 in 
Today's Image

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