Monster Sunspot to Unleash Powerful Solar Flares 

            Over the weekend, there was the discovery of a huge sunspot on the sun.  It measures more than 60,000 miles across. The scientists from NASA said in a tweet that this spot is a "monster sunspot". Sunspots are temporary dark patches on the top of the sun that are caused by magnetic forces from the sun. These spots sometimes erupt into solar flares. Then they send high energy radiation going into space. Over the course of a few days, this Monday showed scientists they found a new sunspot on the sun.

 ^ This shows the different sun spots that are on the sun, from the past few years.

At NASA, they figured out that the outbursts from 2005 through 2010, our sun began to get really serious last year, shooting off many powerful flares. Most scientists expect the outbursts to continue over the next year or and possibly more. The suns activity waxes and wanes, like the moon on an eleven year cycle, and scientists think the newest one known as Solar Cycle 24 will reach its highest point ever in 2013. 

You can find this article and picture at the following  links> http://news.discovery.com/space/sunspot-ar1476-120507.html

http://news.discovery.com/space/zooms/sunspot-ar1476-120507.html