Sun News April 30, 2024. Coronal HOLES! X Flare?

NASA's SDO spacecraft captured these 4 coronal holes on the sun's visible face earlier today. Coronal holes are regions where the sun's magnetic field opens into space. So more solar wind escapes from those holes! But the hole itself is left with less material to glow. So the holes look dark, compared to the surrounding sun. In addition to these holes, today's sun has a sunspot region with X-flare potential. It's giant sunspot region AR3654, now bigger than 3 Earths in size. It's been producing M flares, or moderately sized flares, all week. Its magnetic complexity indicates the region has the potential to produce more M flares and possibly an X flare. It could get interesting before the sun's rotation carries it out of view. Plus you can see it with your eclipse glasses, no magnification aid needed.

NASA solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young is an EarthSky sun news producer and author:

Raúl Cortés is an EarthSky sun news producer and author:

Deborah Byrd is an EarthSky sun news producer and host:

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[jeaninious]

It's hard to fathom that one sunspot is 3x the size of planet Earth! Also, I'm not sure I've heard of solar wind, something new to learn about.☀️😊

[powerforchange]

I thought it was a cross section of an artery