EVIL TWINS? A pair of large sunspots has rotated into view over the sun's eastern limb. The two dark cores, collectively known as AR1654, are each big enough to swallow Earth four times over. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture of the twins during the early hours of Jan. 10th: The two sunspots are connected by a canopy of strong magnetic fields, which are presently crackling with low-level C-flares. Much stronger eruptions are possible. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-class flares and a 5% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours. http://www.spaceweather.com/
Did you feel the heat and the effects of a tremendous solar flare Friday? As we now know the human race does experience all kinds of symptoms ranging from feelings of euphoria to aggressiveness during solar events, and this one today was a real douzy!
Hitting planet Earth at approximately 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) and registered as a class X1.1 solar flare — one of the strongest types of solar flares possible, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) run by NOAA and the National Weather Service, it was one of several more to come this week, after an intense week of activity.
Today's fiery solar storm erupted from the giant sunspot AR1515, and space weather scientists were closely watching the sunspot for possible X-class flares. According to the Smithsonian website:
