This weekend a major solar flare erupted on the northeast limb of the Sun at 1928 UT on February 5. According to data from the NOAA Space Environment Center, it was one of the largest and brightes optical flares of the current solar cycle. The eruption was bright across the electromagnetic spectrum. Large flares like this one can emit up to 1032 ergs of energy. This energy is ten million times greater than the energy released from a volcanic explosion.
Solar flares become more common during sunspot maximum.
The current sunspot cycle is slated to peak in mid-2000, and remain high for at least a year. The ejected material did not appear to be headed for Earth. However , if this sunspot group produces more coronal mass ejections in the coming week, they could become Earth-directed as the active region rotates across the Sun's central meridian.