Solar flares, Sunspots and Tornadoes 👀

A DOZEN SUNSPOT GROUPS: Today, there are twelve sunspot groups on the solar disk. That's a large number. However, they all have stable magnetic fields that pose little threat for strong flares. Solar activity should remain low throughout the weekend.

MONSTER TORNADO ON THE SUN: On Earth, the most dangerous tornadoes are rated F5. On the sun, they can be hundreds of times worse. David Wilson photographed this twister, big enough to swallow our entire planet, from his backyard observatory in Inverness, Scotland

"I was recording this monster all day on April 24th when I noticed the central stem grow brighter until it let go at about 1300UT," says Wilson. "It looked like a huge swirl of plasma went round the stem and flew into space."

Wind speeds in this monster top 150,000 mph. If we rated it on the Fujita scale, it would be a F100, at least. The structure of the twister is not defined by wind, however. Tornadoes on the sun are controlled by magnetism. Solar magnetic fields twist in a furious spiral, dragging clouds of plasma around and hurling them into space when they become overtorqued.

Tornadoes on the sun have been seen before, but this one is unusually large--a monster, indeed.