THREE DAYS ON THE SUN: Three days ago, the surface of the sun was calm and almost featureless. Then sunspot 1035 burst onto the scene. A movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows developments from Dec. 14th to the present:

The recently invisible spot is now nine times wider than Earth and crackling with C-class solar flares. A series of eruptions on Dec. 16th sent two and perhaps three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the general direction of our planet. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the clouds arrive beginning on Dec. 18th or 19th.

more images: from Karzaman Ahmad of Langkawi National Observatory, Malaysia; from Monty Leventhal OAM of Sydney, Australia; from Michael Rosolina of White Sulphur Springs, WV; from Gianfranco Meregalli of Milano, Italy

This blog has been created from report given on www.spaceweather.com.