The far side of the sun is alive with activity. On Nov. 26th, NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observed two farside coronal mass ejections (CMEs) billowing into space. This one came from old sunspot 1126, located just over the sun's southwestern horizon:

Image
© SOHO
Click HERE to play a 3 MB gif animation.

Hours later, a second CME followed, but not from the same blast site. The second CME came from an active region near the sun's anti-Earth point, almost directly opposite our planet on the solar farside. If Earth were on the other side of the sun, we would be be expecting bright auroras from the impact of these clouds. Instead, the alert is for "all quiet." Nothing major is heading our way.

The farside active regions that produced these eruptions will turn to face Earth in 7 to 14 days. Will they remain active that long? Stay tuned for updates.

More movies: (1) Both CMEs observed by STEREO-B; (2) The eruption of old sunspot 1126 observed by STEREO-A. Watch the STEREO-A movie all the way to the end. The eruption occurs in the final third of the movie.