The Sun’s angry red spot

Alan Friedman, astrophotographer, caught the culprit sunspot, Active Region 1429, as it was nearing the edge of the Sun on Monday.

Note all the prominences, giant towers of gas at the edge of the Sun, and the simply enormous filament of plasma at the top of the Sun’s disk.

It’s about 400,000 km (240,000 miles) across. This is the same distance from the Earth to the Moon!