Solar flares from a massive sunspot could reach Earth this week, dpa quoted space weather observers as saying Wednesday. A pair of solar eruptions Monday sent so-called coronal mass ejections towards Earth that could arrive between Wednesday and Thursday, causing moderate geomagnetic storms and auroras in northern latitudes, spaceweather.com said. A group of sunspots some 100,000 kilometres across emerged at the weekend, signalling the possibility of further solar storms. The sunspot is so large it is visible with the naked eye, but astronomers warned against looking directly into the sun. The sunspot known as region 1476 will be in direct alignment with Earth in a few days, increasing the likelihood of geomagnetic storms, the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Centre said. It has been shooting off low-level and moderate flares over the past several days.
