The largest sunspot in decades is pointed right at Earth

last updated 8 January 2015

Scientists have detected the largest sunspot region in more than 20 years — and it's aiming solar flares toward Earth.

The solar flares from the sunspot could eventually turn into a solar storm and create a coronal mass ejection (CME), which could cause auroras and disrupt Earth's power grids. The sunspot cluster in question, AR12192, is "the largest sunspot group since November of 1990," Dough Biesecker, a researcher at the National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center, told The Washington Post.