© NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
The instruments onboard NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory captured imagery of the two sunspots from the new sunspot cycle on Dec. 24 — one in the sun's northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere, shown here circled in red.
Two new sunspots have ended a long period of relative quiet on the surface of our blazing host star, heralding the start of a new 11-year cycle of sunspot activity — resulting in sometimes dramatic
space weather that could disrupt communications and power grids here on Earth.
The two new sunspots, designated as NOAA 2753 and 2754, were
seen on Dec. 24 by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory — a satellite that monitors the exterior and interior of the sun from a geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (more than 35,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.
These are the first significant sunspots seen since November 2019 and indicate the onset of a new sunspot cycle — known as Solar Cycle 25, or SC25 — that is expected to reach a new peak of magnetic activity in about five years.
Visible sunspots are caused by magnetic disturbances in the sun that displace its bright outer layer and reveal the slightly cooler (and darker) interior layers, usually for a few days but sometimes for several weeks. They can vary in size, but are usually vast — often much larger than the entire Earth.
"The sun was spotless from Nov. 14 until Dec. 23," said Jan Janssens, a communications specialist with the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence in Brussels, Belgium, which coordinates studies of the sun.
"This 40-days stretch of spotless days is the longest in more than 20 years," he told Live Science in an email.
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