Giant sunspot doubled in size in 24 hours, and it's pointing right at Earth

The two massive sunspot groups, known as AR 2993 and AR 2994, became visible a few days ago at the northeast limb of the sun after becoming active while still hidden by the sun's disk. — Two massive sunspot groups pictured on the sun's surface.

(Image credit: Langkawi National Observatory, MYSA/MOSTI)

A gigantic sunspot has swelled to twice Earth's size, doubling its diameter in 24 hours, and it's pointed right at us.

The sunspot, called AR3038, grew to 2.5 times Earth's size — making the sunspot roughly 19,800 miles, or 31,900 kilometers, in diameter — from Sunday (June 19) to Monday night (June 20), according to Spaceweather.com, a website that tracks news about solar flares, geomagnetic storms and other cosmic weather events.

Despite its alarmingly speedy growth, the giant sunspot is less scary than it may seem. The flares it will most likely produce are M-class solar flares, which "generally cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions," alongside minor radiation storms, the European Space Agency wrote in a blog post. M-class flares are the most common type of solar flare. Although the sun does occasionally release enormous X-class flares (the strongest category) with the potential to cause high-frequency blackouts on the side of Earth that's exposed to the flare, these flares are observed much less often than smaller solar eruptions.

Sunspots can also belch solar material. On planets that have strong magnetic fields, like Earth, the barrage of solar debris from CMEs is absorbed by our magnetic field, triggering powerful geomagnetic storms. During these storms, Earth's magnetic field gets compressed slightly by the waves of highly energetic particles, which trickle down magnetic-field lines near the poles and agitate molecules in the atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of light to create colorful auroras in the night sky.

The movements of these electrically charged particles can disrupt our planet's magnetic field powerfully enough to send satellites tumbling to Earth, Live Science previously reported, and scientists have warned that extreme geomagnetic storms could even cripple the internet. Erupting debris from CMEs usually takes around 15 to 18 hours to reach Earth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.

Scientists think the largest solar storm ever witnessed during contemporary history was the 1859 Carrington Event, which released roughly the same energy as 10 billion 1-megaton atomic bombs. After slamming into Earth, the powerful stream of solar particles fried telegraph systems all over the world and caused auroras brighter than the light of the full moon to appear as far south as the Caribbean. If a similar event were to happen today, scientists warn, it would cause trillions of dollars in damage and trigger widespread blackouts, much like the 1989 solar storm that released a billion-ton plume of gas and caused a blackout across the entire Canadian province of Quebec, NASA reported.

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Ben Turner is a U.K. based writer and editor at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.