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Hot off the press - 2 images of the Sun showing the enormous Sunspot AR4366; taken on the 4th February 2026. The image on the left was taken by Jim Burchell using a Seestar s50 smart scope and the image on the right was taken by George Buckberry using a Dwarf3 smart scope. Both taken from the Dartford area.
AR4366 has unleashed dozens of solar flares including a powerful X8-class flare on the 1st February 2026. Most sunspots never produce even one X-flare but this week, giant sunspot 4366 has fired off six; the latest being an X4.2-class explosion on the 4th February.
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Below is a diagram of the sun with the sunspots labelled and an image of just AR4366. Both these images were taken from the website spaceweather.com.
''The image of the Sunspot AR4366 was taken by amateur astronomer James Kevin Ty on Feb 3rd from his backyard observatory in Manila. "This sunspot started as an inconspicuous pore just a few days ago. Since then it has grown hugely in size!" he says.
SUNSPOT ARCHIPELAGO: Sunspots are magnetic islands on the sun. Sunspot AR4366 is a complete archipelago. Scroll down to scan more than 200,000 miles of island chain.
The island metaphor is apt. Sunspots are buoyant concentrations of magnetism that float on a sea of solar plasma. Archipelago 4366 consists of one big island twice as wide as Earth plus dozens of lesser isles ranging in size from US states to small planets.
AR4366 is currently facing Earth.'' Ref:Spaceweather.com
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