The Sun had a rather blank look on its face for days and days over the past several weeks or so, just quietly rotating without much to offer in the way of interesting phenomena like solar prominences, sunspots, or storms. Then, a single, lone, and rather large active region rotated into view on 12 November 2005. In visible light it appears as a black spot, but in extreme ultraviolet light as seen above, it appears white, indicating intensity of magnetic activity. It extends nearly 140,000 km, about the diameter of Jupiter. In fact, the active region has been spouting off a series of moderate (M-class) flares. As solar rotation continues to bring it towards the center of the Sun over the next few days, it could provide the spark for some Earth-directed "space weather." Stay tuned.

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Previous Picks of the Week

SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.

If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov.