Giant Sunspot Threatens Earth as Solar Flare

The Sun is about to erupt, and soon. Solar scientists are keeping a watch on a huge Sunspot known as AR3055 that is more than 6,100 miles across. These areas, which like black moles on the surface of the Sun, are magnetic flux-induced concentrations of relatively colder temperatures.

Astronomer Apollo Lasky stated in a statement Monday that “a new huge black core has just emerged on the limb” and that “there is an incredible-looking Sunspot traversing the middle of the solar disc.” According to SpaceWeather.com, which also published animated photographs of the region, which boasts more than a dozen spinning cores of magnetic energy, scientists are unsure if AR3055 rapidly evolved on its own during the weekend or expanded to its current size from an existing, smaller location.

A Sunspot like AR3055 might produce “M-class” solar flares, which are prolonged bursts of extremely high energy radiation. M-class flares are regarded as medium-sized yet having the ability to cause radio blackouts on Earth and in space. Plasma is released by flares from the corona, the Sun’s outermost layer.

The shockwave, known as a coronal mass ejection, eventually hits our atmosphere, taking about eight minutes. When it does, it causes geomagnetic storms, which have varying effects on satellites, GPS, local power grids, and other natural processes, such as animal migration, which depends on the magnetic field for navigation. The power of flares is categorised, with type X being the strongest of all and kinds C and B falling below M. These flares have the potential to cause global outages and radiation storms.