A ‘Dangerous’ Sunspot With Major Solar Flare Potential Is Pointing At Earth

This image provided by NASA shows the sun releasing a M1.7 class flare associated with a prominence eruption on April, 16, 2012. This image was taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. This visually spectacular explosion occurred on the sun’s Northeastern limb (left) and was not Earth directed. (AP Photo/NASA/SDO/AIA)

The large sunspot on the surface of the sun has been disconcertingly quiet this week, leading some astronomers to worry that a big solar flare may be building.

“Could it be the calm before the storm?” former NASA astronomer Dr. Tony Phillips writes on SpaceWeather.com.

The sunspot cataloged as AR3089 has been mellow, but that doesn’t mean it’s going away. Rather, Phillips says “it has developed a delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares.”

That’s the strongest class of flare, but there is quite a bit of variation within the X-class, which can produce as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs on the most intense end of the sacle.

Fortunately, we’re prevented from being harmed biologically by this intense output by Earth’s magnetosphere.

But X Flares and the coronal mass ejections that are often associated with them can create storms of radiation that can damage satellites, disrupt communications systems on Earth and even the power grid.

It’s thought the strongest flare ever recorded happened in 2003 and was estimated to have been about X40, although sensors measuring it cut out around X16.

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