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Voice off Screen: Scientists around the

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world have their eyes turned to the sun this
week as it reveals as massive active

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region that could affect us here on Earth.
And here joining us from NASAs Goddard

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Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland
is Dr. Holly Gilbert. Thank you

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for joining us. Dr.Gilbert: Thank you for
having me. Voice off Screen: So what is a

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sunspot and what

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makes this one so special. Dr. Gilbert: Sunspots
are these dark regions on the sun

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where magnetic fields are bundled together
and it creates such a strong magnetic

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field that light and heat cannot cross it,
so it appears

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dark relative to the surrounding area. And
the particular sunspot region

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that we're interested, right now is the largest
that we've seen

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in twenty-four years.

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Voice off Screen: Fascinating,
so

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why do we want to learn more from this sunspot?
Dr. Gilbert: Sunspots are regions where

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solar storms originate, so basically where
space weather originates. It's

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important to study these things because they
have flares that are associated with them

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and these bigger storms called coronal mass
ejections. So by

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studying the sunspot region itself, and how
it evolves we will understand

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more about how solar flares are created and
when they will

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impact the Earth.

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Voice off Screen: So will
this affect us here on Earth ?

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Dr. Gilbert: We don't know yet. It's possible
that it will in the next week cause it's

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still going to be on the side of the sun facing
us. It maybe associated

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with these mass ejections, and if they are
directed towards the Earth they can

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interact with the Earth's magnetic field and
cause problems with our

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satellites, our power grids, our technology.
We're protected on the surface

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from that magnetic field of the Earth and
the atmosphere. But our technology is susceptible

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to these types of storms.

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Voice off Screen:
Neat.

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So what is NASA doing to

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study sunspots? Dr. Gilbert: Well we have
our eye on the sun all the time

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and so we're watching this particular sunspot
along with our partners at NOAA,

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we have a mission called the Solar Dynamics
Observatory which images the sun

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all the time and we also have a fleet of missions
that

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not only look at the sun, but study what's
happening here near

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the Eath as well as throughout the solar system.
In fact we have a new mission that we're

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about to launch next year, that are four identical
spacecraft. This is

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called MMS and those four spacecraft will
be inside the

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Earth's magentic field, basically taking measurements
of these

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processes that create the solar flares on
the sun. But these

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processes happen near the Earth they also
happen on the sun and throughout the universe,

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near us in our labratory of the Earth we can
understand better

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how they happen. Voice off Screen: Great.
Where can we go to learn more?

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Dr. Gilbert: You can go to are website to
find a lot more about our missions and

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lots of images nasa.gov/sunearth.

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Voice off Screen: Dr. Holly Gilbert thank
you so much. Dr. Gilbert: Thank you.