A closeup view of a typical pair of sunspots, with Earth superimposed to show scale.
Original Windows to the Universe artwork by Randy Russell using images from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (sunspot image) and NASA (Earth image).

This picture show how big sunspots are. Many sunspots are as big as Earth! Earth never really gets this close to the Sun; we just put Earth in the picture to show how large sunspots are.
Original Windows to the Universe artwork by Randy Russell using images from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (sunspot image) and NASA (Earth image).

Sunspots are really, really big. Many sunspots are as big as Earth. Earth never really gets this close to the Sun. We made up this picture with Earth next to sunspots so you could see how big sunspots are.
Original Windows to the Universe artwork by Randy Russell using images from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (sunspot image) and NASA (Earth image).

The source of this material is Windows to the Universe, at http://www.windows.ucar.edu/ at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). © The Regents of the University of Michigan. All Rights Reserved. Site policies and disclaimer