Giant sunspot set to fire solar flares and they may be directed at Earth

Recently, scientists have discovered a massive sunspot that is facing Earth that has doubled in size in the past few days and it might fire solar flares in our direction putting all communications and electrical infrastructure here in harm's way. Is it potentially dangerous for our planet or not? While the Space Weather Prediction Center managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that there’s no cause for concern yet but, it doesn’t stop people from worrying about these potential for danger.

Rob Steenburgh, the head of the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Forecast Office pointed out that this type of sunspots don’t produce dangerous solar flares. Having said that, these solar flares could still knock out satellites or disrupt power grids.

What are sunspots?

According to NASA, sunspots are the areas on the Sun's surface where magnetic fields are extremely strong. They have a darker appearance that is relatively cooler than other parts of the Sun's surface. Do note that the temperature around a sunspot is 3,593°C. The solar flares emerge from the area around the sunspot. Solar flares are the sudden bursts of energy that emit radiation into outer space. They could disrupt communication systems and cause blackouts on Earth. Different sizes of sunspots release different intensities of solar flares which are measured by different alphabets. The A-class flares are said to be the lowest intensity, and as the solar flares intensify it is represented by B, C to X.

Everything about sunspot Active Region 3038 or AR3038

According to www.inverse.com, AR3038 doesn’t look like any of those flares directed at Earth, as it rotated back out of view and is no longer facing Earth. However, there is another active region, AR3040 that has shot 6 C-class flares in the last 24 hours. So we can expect some spectacular auroras if those solar flares head towards Earth.