One of the largest sunspot groups seen in years is rotating across the Sun and the potential for massive solar flares is considered very high.

It’s so big that four earths could fit into it! Now you can understand why we call it a monster.

The sun rotates about once every 27 days as viewed from the Earth so we haven’t been able to see this giant sun spot group directly until now, writes Dave Reneke from Australasian Science magazine.

Sunspots are believed to spawn solar flares, the bigger the sunspot the more powerful the flare.

Astronomers are puzzled. The Sun is in its quiet period and should be slowing down, not ramping up! Last week we saw solar flares shooting away up to 100,000 km in length. And, there’s more on the way!

Solar flares can be pretty damaging because we rely so much now on electronic communication.

A really large solar flare could severely damage or destroy any of our communication satellites and overload power stations causing mass blackouts and power outages.

The two powerful solar outbursts just last week in rapid succession caused blackouts for shortwave radio users around the world. They were the strongest flares of 2016 so far.

Most developed countries like Australia are particularly vulnerable because the power infrastructure is highly interconnected, so failures could easily cascade like chains of dominoes.

Imagine large cities without power for a week, a month, or a year. The losses could be $1 to $2 trillion, and the effects could be felt for years.

So, the next time you get burnt red from being outside too long spare a thought for how powerful that ball of energy is that dominates the daytime sky. The Sun warms our planet every day, provides the light by which we see and is necessary for life on Earth.

It produces poem-worthy sunsets and releases as much energy as 1 trillion megaton bombs every second! Wow, that’s raw untapped power!