This ‘Large and Unstable’ Sunspot Just Slammed Earth With Its Strongest Flare Yet

An Earth-facing sunspot region has been raging with massive eruptions of hot gas that have caused disruptions to our communications systems—and there’s still more to come.

On Tuesday at 5:49 p.m. ET, sunspot region 4114 released an X.12 class solar flare that caused a radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. This was the strongest flare released by this specific sunspot thus far. That said, this magnetically active region resulted in multiple eruptions over the past few days and is predicted to fling another one our way today.

A sunspot is a dark, cooler area that appears like a smudged dot on the Sun. It forms when strong magnetic activity slows down the flow of hot gas from the star’s interior to its surface. A byproduct of the Sun’s complex magnetic field, sunspots occur more often during the solar maximum. The Sun goes through an 11-year cycle, marked by an ebb and flow of solar activity. During solar maximum, which officially kicked off in October 2024, the Sun erupts with more flares, coronal mass ejections, and magnetic storms. When all that activity is on the side of the Sun that’s facing Earth, it’s bad news for us.

Sunspot region 4114 is a feisty one. Earlier this week, the sunspot released multiple M-class solar flares in less than 24 hours, according to spaceweather.com. “Sunspot 4114 is large and unstable, with a ‘delta-class’ magnetic field that harbors energy for strong explosions,” the solar tracking website wrote. The strongest flare erupted on June 15 as an M8.46 class, causing a shortwave radio blackout over North America with loss of signal at frequencies below 20 Megahertz.

Solar flares are categorized by their strength, starting at B-class, which are the weakest, all the way up to the strongest, the X-class. An M-class solar flare comes right before the X-class. The solar flare responsible for the geomagnetic storm that took place between May 10 to 12,2024 was classified as X1.1, just a tiny bit stronger than the latest flare produced by sunspot region 4114.

The sunspot’s previous flares also unleashed a coronal mass ejection (CME), eruptions of solar material ejected from the Sun that can cause geomagnetic disturbances on Earth. Tuesday’s flare, however, was not accompanied by a CME. Instead, it was an intense flash of electromagnetic energy that caused ionization in Earth’s upper atmosphere, resulting in the radio blackout.

The active sunspot region, which is still facing Earth, is predicted to release another solar flare on Wednesday, according to spaceweather.com. As the Sun rotates on its axis, the sunspot will become hidden from our view and Earth will be in the clear. There is a chance, however, that the sunspot remains active until it reappears in view again, unleashing more solar rage our way.

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