Sun's largest sunspots may have potential to trigger superflares

The sun is capable of great things. In massive eruptions, it repeatedly hurls particles and radiation into space. This solar bombardment can be dangerous for technical infrastructure on Earth: For example, satellites and transformers in. The science-journalism coverage adds useful context, while the strongest evidential footing still comes from the underlying data, papers or institutional documentation.

It is relevant because physics only takes a result seriously when the measurement chain remains robust under scrutiny. Experimental particle physics and precision metrology both operate in regimes where the signal sits far below the background noise, and where systematic uncertainties can mimic new physics if not controlled rigorously. The history of the field contains numerous anomalies that generated theoretical excitement before better data showed them to be artifacts, and it also contains genuine discoveries that were initially dismissed as noise. The difference is almost always resolved by independent replication with different instruments and different systematics. This solar bombardment can be dangerous for technical infrastructure on Earth: For example, satellites and transformers in substations can be damaged. The solar storm that struck Earth during the so-called Carrington Event was so powerful that auroras were visible as far as the Caribbean, and sparks flew from the receivers in.

The amount of energy the sun releases during a flare can be measured directly only outside Earth's atmosphere or determined indirectly from data and images from space probes. In late 2024, researchers at the MPS were able to show that superflares occur about once a century on stars that resemble the sun in key characteristics.

Natural archives of solar activity also point to our star's tempestuous nature: Isolated, short-lived and exceptionally strong spikes in the concentrations of radioactive isotopes. They analyzed observational data collected by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory from 2010 to 2016.

The team correlated the amount of energy released by the 300 strongest flares during this period with the size of the corresponding active region on the sun's visible surface. Sunspots have been systematically and regularly recorded for about 400 years," said MPS scientist Theodosios Chatzistergos, a co-author of the new study.

The broader interest lies as much in the method as in the headline number, because a durable measurement procedure can travel farther than a single result. When experimental physicists develop a technique that achieves new sensitivity or controls a previously uncharacterized systematic, that methodological contribution persists even if the specific measurement is later revised. This is one reason why precision physics experiments often generate long-term value that is not immediately visible in the original publication.

One of the largest sunspots the sun has displayed since the beginning of systematic solar observations was the large sunspot of April 1947. Its diameter was about 40 times that of Earth's.

Because this item comes through Phys. org Space as science journalism, it should be treated as contextual reporting rather than primary evidence. Good science reporting can identify why a result matters, connect it to the wider literature and make technical work readable, but the decisive evidence remains in the original paper, dataset, mission release or technical record. That distinction is especially important when a story is later repeated by aggregators, because repetition increases visibility, not evidential strength.

The next step is more measurement, tighter systematic control and scrutiny from groups whose experimental setups are genuinely independent. In experimental particle physics and precision metrology, the threshold for a discovery claim is a five-sigma excess surviving multiple analyses; an intriguing signal at lower significance is a reason to run more experiments, not a reason to revise the textbooks. Next-generation experiments currently under construction or commissioning will revisit several of the open questions that give the current result its context.

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