Big Sunspot 1195 - Possible M-Class Flares Directed Toward Earth

This detailed image of sunspot 1195 looks like it was taken by one of NASA's most advanced space telescopes. In fact, it comes from someone's backyard in the Netherlands. Scroll down for the full story, and carefully examine the starscape as you go:

© Emil Kraaikamp

All around the sunspot, the stellar surface is literally boiling. The blobs shown so clearly in Kraaikamp's picture are solar granules, akin to rising blobs of water in a pot on a hot stove. These blobs, however, are made of plasma and they are about the size of Texas.

There is one thing not visible in the photo: the sunspot's magnetic field. Space-based magnetographs reveal a 'beta-gamma' configuration that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Earth-directed eruptions are possible before the weekend is over. Stay tuned.