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Sunspot Grows to 20 Times Size of Earth

Posted by michael on from the tan-don't-burn dept.

TheHedgehog writes "A sunspot group aimed squarely at Earth has grown to 20 times the size of our planet and has the potential to unleash a major solar storm. 'The implications of this spot have scientists on the edge of their seats,' NASA said in a statement Friday. 'If the active region generates coronal mass ejections (CMEs), massive explosions with a potential force of a billion megaton bombs, it will be a fairly direct hit to Earth and its satellites and power grids.'"

1 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. solar zit by joeslugg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I actually saw the thing during my morning commute - must have been on Friday. There was just the right amount of fog and clouds so that you could "look" at the sun. I saw a black dot - reminded me of the pictures of the transit of Venus a while back. It occurred to me that if it was a sunspot, and I could see the thing that clearly, it must be gigantic.

    And when it swooped down to attack, I could see that I was right...