There are two huge swarms of sunspots on the surface of the sun, which are indicative of the increased possibilities of solar flares over the months to come. Some of the sunspots are so large that they could swallow the entire planet.
The new sunspot groups are known as 2993 and 2994, and are followed by a third sunspot group hidden behind the northeastern limb.
Each swarm covers hundreds of millions of square miles and is much larger than Earth. Magnetic disruptions of the visible photoosphere of the sun expose the relatively cooler layers underneath.
Each solar cycle has low and high activity, with the sun's magnetic entanglements and disentanglement happening in 11-year cycles. The solar activity cycles have been numbered for over 200 years. We are currently in Solar Cycle 25 and it is possible that there will be more sunspot activity to come.
There is a new type of solar wave.
Dean Pesnell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told Live Science in an email that they will see larger active regions over the next few years.
Pesnell said the current cycle is expected to reach its maximum activity in the early to late 20th century. Super-hot balls of plasma can be released as radiation from the active regions.
Solar flares can create beautiful auroras, but they can also present a danger to power grids, satellites, communications networks, and potentially even to space travelers beyond the protection of the Earth's magnetic field.
The sun has been very active over the last few weeks, and there is no expectation that it will get less active soon, according to a communications specialist at the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of excellence.
Last week, the Earth narrowly missed an ejection of the sunspot group.
The situation is typical at this stage of the solar cycle when more and more sunspot regions become visible.
The current level of solar activity is about the same as it was during the last solar cycle, and even lower than it was before that, he said.
Pesnell, who is the project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, said a powerful class X 1.1 flare detected on Sunday (April 17) now appears to be from a third sunspot group.
According to NASA, scientists divide solar flares into five classes, each 10 times more powerful than the last. The most powerful X-class flares can hold more than 10 times the power of an X1 flare, so in theory there is no limit to how big they can get.
The X-rays from Sunday's X1 flare caused a power outage across Southeast Asia and Australia, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
It was determined that the stellar material from the latest solar flare will miss Earth.
It can have severe effects on the Earth, for instance, overwhelming power grids or radio communications, or even harming astronauts in space. Satellites can be damaged by heat from the gases of the upper atmosphere and by the electronics on them.
Pesnell said that the hazard level of solar activity will be raised over the next few years.
The modern world seems to have avoided the worst effects of solar storms, and power-grid operators are hardening their equipment against such disruptions.
Some of the worst solar flares in recent memory blacked out the electricity in parts of Europe and South Africa for several hours.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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