NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space probe dedicated to the study of the sun, has captured footage of a sunspot rotating towards Earth.

Sunsports are patches on the surface of the sun that appear darker than their surroundings due to the loss of surface tension caused by magnetic flux, an intense concentration of complex magnetic fields.

Sunspots are relatively common, but as the sun approaches the solar minimum -- the least active part of its 11-year cycle -- the frequency of sunspots decreases. The sunspot filmed by SDO this week was the first seen in two days. It is currently the only visible sunspot on the surface of the sun.

While sunspots appears to be quite small, the newly released video from NASA shows the patch of intensive electromagnetic activity is actually larger than Earth.

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Improved representation of solar variability in climate models
Kiel, Germany (SPX) Jul 07, 2017
How much do solar cycle variations influence our climate system? Could the rising Earth temperatures due to anthropogenic effects partly be compensated by a reduction of solar forcing in the future? These questions have been in the focus of climate research for a long time. In order to answer these questions as precisely as possible, it is required to know the fluctuations of solar forcing ... read more

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