We Are Now Facing the Biggest Sunspots

The biggest sunspots since 2005 are now visible from the Earth and slowly rotating to face the planet since last November 3, 2011. The largest of these sunspots, Sunspot AR 1339, is said to be 17 times the Earth’s width. The Solar Dynamics Observatory team even called Active Region 1339 a “Bad Boy” causing a solar flare reaching X1.9 at 20:27 UTC on the 3rd. This region is not facing Earth — yet. But observers are keeping are closely watching as it turns toward an Earth-facing direction.

This image above was taken by Vladimir Knyaz of Moscow, Russia on November 5, 2011

Sunspots are precursors to solar flares and can cause the sun to give off solar winds. Remember the movie "2012"? A massive solar flare caused the temperature of the Earth's core to increase resulting to those catastrophic earthquakes and megatsunamis. But that was science fiction. Thanks to the electromagnetic field protecting the earth, solar winds usually just bounce off.

The real threat - solar winds are like kame-hame waves aimed at our satellites and space stations. We could end up with no telecommunications, planet-wide radio blackouts (including no cell phones or internet), and long-lasting radiation storms. Can you imagine no cellphone and internet for years? It would most certainly affect Filipinos who prides to be the texting capital of the world and of course the 27 million filipino facebook users.