Credit SDO/HMI.
A huge Sunspot is rapidly increasing as it turns to face Earth! Sunspot AR3529 is still growing, quadrupling in size since Tuesday, according to Spaceweather.com. This 48-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows its rapid development: With two primary dark cores twice the size of Earth, AR3529 is an easy target for solar-filtered telescopes. Of greater interest is the sunspot's 'delta-class' magnetic field. Within the sunspot + and - magnetic polarities are pressing together. Magnetic reconnection could produce an X-class solar flare. Any eruptions today will be Earth-directed, as the sunspot almost directly faces Earth.
At the moment NASA is predicting a tiny 05% chance of a dangerous X-class flare, however, during the night the NOAA Spaceweather Prediction Centre recorded a strong M4.2 class flare from departing Sunspot 3519.
It's just a week today since Sunspot 3514 produced a massive X2.8-class solar flare which is the strongest flare of Solar Cycle 25 and the most powerful eruption the sun has produced since the great storms of Sept. 2017, see pictures below.
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