A Sunspot Ten Times The Size Of The Earth Could Produce A Solar Flare That Threatens The Planet

There’s a little black spot on the Sun today. OK, so it’s actually a pretty large black spot on the Sun – large enough to contain ten Earths, according to UPI. And it’s pointed right at us. And it’s capable of producing a solar flare that could disrupt communications systems and power grids here on Earth.

The sunspot, lovingly named AR 12192, is large enough that it can be seen with the naked eye (if you’re wearing proper eye protection, that is; don’t ever look directly at the sun without proper protection!). In fact, you probably caught a glimpse of the sunspot yesterday if you were watching the eclipse.

Sunspots are naturally-occurring cool (relatively, that is) spots on the surface of the Sun that occur in cycles. The current sunspot is the largest that has appeared in the current sunspot cycle, which began in 2008, according to Capital Wired. In fact, says Doug Biesecker of the National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center, it’s the biggest sunspot in quite a while.

“This is the largest sunspot group since November of 1990.”

The problem that sunspots can cause for us Earth-dwellers is this: they are associated with magnetic activity that produces powerful solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) – that is, huge bursts of radiation and energy. Solar flares and CMEs can cause problems here on the ground, including disruption in communications satellites and problems with the power grid. On the plus side, they can produce auroras, which are beautiful to behold – if you live in the right place.

This sunspot has the potential to be a whopper. Although it has not, as of this post, shot any CMEs in our direction, it has produced some major solar flares; two X-class flares. If you’re not a scientist, suffice to say that X-class solar flares are the most severe.

And according to NASA, via Capital Wired, this particular sunspot is not done causing trouble.

“None of the CMEs linked to these events are expected to be geo-effective so far, though, forecasters will keep an eye out for both CME activity and solar radiation storm possibility as the region approaches center disk.”

CMEs move slower than solar flares, which travel at the speed of light, according to Forbes. That means that if this sunspot produces a CME, we’ll have a few days’ warning.

The largest observed sunspot in history was in 1947, and was three times larger than the current massive sunspot.

[Images courtesy of: Starship Asterisk, Lisa Kprinkle]