Spaceweather.com | Sunspot 1024 is growing again - today almost as wide as planet Jupiter - July 8, 2009 6:45am CDT

RESURGENT SUNSPOT: Yesterday, sunspot 1024 took the day off; the fast-growing active region stopped growing and even decayed a little. Today, the sunspot is growing again. It now measures 125,000 km from end to end, almost as wide as the planet Jupiter. This 3-day movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) shows recent developments:

The size of the spot makes it a fine target for backyard solar telescopes. And it is worth watching. Sunspot 1024 is the first big sunspot of new Solar Cycle 24, and it is crackling with minor but photogenic B-class flares. By itself, this one active region won't bring an end to the deepest solar minimum in a century, but it does show that the sun's magnetic dynamo is still working--a fact some had begun to doubt. More sunspots are coming, so stay tuned.

more images: from David Leong of Hong Kong; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Ábrahám Tamás of Zsámbék, Hungary; from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Therese van Nieuwenhoven of Laukvik, Lofoten islands, Norway;