'It's Alive' Sunspot Explodes Creating Huge Solar Flare, Radio Blackouts

The Sun spat out a large solar flare from a sunspot early on Monday, leading to temporary radio blackouts in the Pacific Ocean.

Sunspot AR3141 exploded with an M5-class solar flare, which is fairly powerful, at 00:11 UTC (around 7 p.m. ET on Sunday).

"IT'S ALIVE! The Sun is up from its nap! An M5.2 flare came from AR3141 at the beginning of Nov. 7 at 00:11 UTC. Bring it on AR3141!! The radio blackout was over the Pacific," wrote the The Sun Today: Solar Facts and Space Weather Facebook page in a post.

Solar flares are emissions of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, usually X-rays, from the Sun's surface, often from more active sunspot regions.