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Image courtesy NASA/SOHO.
Spots on the Sun
News story originally written on October 24, 2003
Did you know that the Sun has spots? Right now it has some very big spots.
There are two groups of sunspots on the Sun right now. Each group is about
as big as the planet Jupiter, which is
the largest planet in our Solar System!
When the Sun has spots, it usually means there will be storms in space. Big
explosions on the Sun near the sunspots make those
storms. Some of that "space weather" comes to Earth. That is what is happening
right now. When a space weather storm comes to Earth, it can cause problems.
It can mess up satellites, and it
might even make the electricity
go out for
a while! But a space weather storm can do nice things too. The Northern
Lights,
which are very pretty, are caused by space weather storms.
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