RADIO-ACTIVE SUNSPOT: Behemoth sunspot 1045 is crackling with M-class solar flares--and that's not all. "There have been many loud shortwave radio bursts over the past two days," reports amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico. "Some of the bursts have completely saturated my receivers." Just listen to the sounds coming from the loudspeakers in his observatory. (continued below)

Image credit: Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York [details]

The roaring sounds you just heard were mainly Type III radio bursts, caused by beams of electrons streaming through the sun's outer atmosphere. Sunspot 1045 appears poised to explosively accelerate more electrons in the days ahead as the flare-show continues. Ham radio operators, point your Yagis toward the sun!

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