The phenomenon could affect communication and GPS satellites orbiting close to the planet.
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Huge sunspot will rotate toward Earth over the weekend. NASA image, Goddard Space Flight Center.
A huge sunspot on the far side of the Sun will rotate toward Earth this weekend, which could cause solar flares and an intense burst of radiation in our star’s atmosphereas revealed Space Weather.
Such disturbances, in turn, would trigger a geomagnetic storm on the planetwhich would affect communication and GPS satellites orbiting close to Earth, as well as aircraft navigation systems.
Although the sunspot is on the far side, scientists detected it by monitoring its vibrational effects.
“The star vibrates continuously, due to convection bubbles hitting the surface,” explained Dean Pesnell, project scientist for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States (NASA).
The strong magnetic field of the spot slows down these vibrations. Consequently, observatories like the SDO can monitor the phenomenon on the far side of the Sun.
Regarding the predictions for this weekend, Pesnell stated that a filament is heading in the direction of the sunspot, so there could be some coronal mass ejections or particle eruptions.
According to NASA, our star has an 11-year cycle during which its activity waxes and wanes, with a “maximum” and a “minimum” when the number of sunspots is highest and lowest, respectively. Now, heading towards a maximum in 2024 and 2025. Therefore, its intensity will increase more than expected.