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.
Click on image for full size
Original Windows to the Universe artwork by Randy Russell using images from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (sunspot image) and NASA (Earth image).

Sizes of Sunspots

Sunspots are very big structures. They might look small compared to the Sun, but remember the Sun has a diameter of 1.4 million km (870 thousand miles).

Most sunspots could swallow a planet! Many sunspots, like the ones shown in the image on this page, are as large as Earth! Most spots range in size from about 1,500 km (932 miles) to around 50,000 km (31,068 miles) in diameter. Once in a while, huge sunspots the size of Jupiter show up on the Sun's surface.

Last modified September 6, 2005 by Jennifer Bergman.

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Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA