sciencetech-blog

comments

A giant sunspot on the solar surface has erupted for the sixth time in a week.

It is the third major flare in the last 48 hours, from the sunspot which is 14 times larger than Earth and almost as big as Jupiter.

Nasa said the activity confirms the areas as the  largest active region seen on the sun in 24 years. 

Scroll down for video 

The bright light in the lower right of the sun shows an X-class solar flare on Oct. 26, 2014, as captured by NASA's SDO. This was the third X-class flare in 48 hours, which erupted from the largest active region seen on the sun in 24 years.

'A giant active region on the sun erupted on Oct. 26, 2014, with its sixth substantial flare since Oct. 19,' Nasa said.

'This flare was classified as an X2-class flare and it peaked at 6:56 a.m. EDT. 

'This is the third X-class flare in 48 hours, erupting from the largest active region seen on the sun in 24 years. 

Previous monster storms on the sun's surface have unleashed a solar flare in the direction of Earth - and there could be more to come.

'It would seem to be just a matter of time before another strong explosion occurs,' said Spaceweather.com's Tony Phillips

Space Weather Prediction Center forecaster Christopher Balch, meanwhile, said the flare affected radio that uses part of the upper atmosphere. 

That includes some but not all radar and plane systems as well as amateur radio.

Mr Balch said the storm briefly was rated as strong for affecting Earth radio systems but then dropped to minor levels.

One event event temporarily blacked out a few radio communication systems before weakening.

An X-class flare erupted from the sun on Oct. 25, 2014, as seen as a bright flash of light in this image from NASA's SDO. The image shows extreme ultraviolet light in the 131-angstrom wavelength, which highlights the intensely hot material in a flare and which is typically colorized in teal.

The event followed months of near-silent activity on the sun before the huge flare erupted from a sunspot 14 times bigger than Earth.

A spokesperson for the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre told MailOnline it may be the biggest sunspot for 25 years.

An X1.6 class flare erupted from the lower half of the sun today, as seen in the bright flash of light in this image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). This image shows extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 131 Angstroms, which highlights the intense heat of a solar flare

But they said in the UK there had been 'no reports of any disruption at all. There may have been short periods of outage in radio communication but nothing has been repotred as causing problems.'

Flares are massive explosions on the Sun associated with sunspots. 

Magnetic fields in sunspots can store vast amounts of energy, but looping magnetic field lines can get tangled up and snap, releasing their energy as explosions called flares. 

Sunspot AR12192 is 14 times larger than Earth and almost as big as Jupiter. The Met Office told MailOnline it might be the largest sunspot in 25 years. It is so big that it can be seen in images of the sun from Earth's surface (shown in this image from pilot Brian Whittaker)

The light area in the centre of this image is the largest sunspot in this 11-year solar cycle, says the Met Office, and it may also have been the largest sunspot for 25 years

Yesterday's flare was an X1.6, which is a million times the combined yield of every single nuclear weapon on Earth.

'The sun erupted with another significant flare today, peaking at 10:28 a.m. EDT on Oct. 22, 2014,' revealed Nasa.

'Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event, which occurred in the lower half of the sun. 

'This flare is classified as an X1.6 class flare. 

'X-class flares denote the most extreme flares.

'This is the third substantial flare from the same region of the sun since Oct. 19.'

Dr Young of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center added: 'It continues to grow in size and complexity.'

The sunspot group - Active Region 2192 - has doubled in size to become one of the biggest groups in years, and has been described by astronomy experts as 'menacing'. 

Up close: Monster Sunspot AR12192 taken by Karzaman Ahmad on October 21, 2014 from Langkawi Nagtional Observatory, Malaysia

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation.

Nasa says, 'Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, but when intense enough - they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.'

An SDO/HMI view of the visible sun showing the largest sunspot of solar cycle 24, AR12192 - which is approaching the size of Earth.

According to experts at thesuntoday.org, 'As of Oct. 22, 2014 (11 UT) the region's trailing spots have an area of 2410 MH or millionths of a visible solar hemisphere. 

'The largest up until now had been AR11967 on Feb. 5, 2014, measuring 1580 MH. MH is a standard measure used by astronomers for area. 

'Just to provide some scale, the surface area of Earth is 169 MH - this means that AR12192 is 14 times larger than the surface area of Earth.'

Solar Flares: See the sun as you've never seen it before

According to Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) team a single, dynamic active region unleashed over half a dozen solar flares in about 24 hours from 25 to 26 August. The two larger flares were M-class (moderate) flares and the others were smaller flares. This animation shows an ejection associated with the flares

Watch as Sunspot Group AR 2192 crackles