May 7 2012 - New Sunspot 1476 is Crackling with M Class Solar Flares HD

 
New sunspot 1476 is large and crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares. Because of the active region's location near the east limb, the eruptions are not geoeffective, although this could change in the days ahead as the sunspot turns toward Earth.
One of the largest sunspot groups in years rotated over the sun's northeastern limb this weekend. With a least four dark cores larger than Earth.

AR1476 sprawls more than 100,000 km from end to end, and makes an easy target for backyard solar telescopes.
Class M1 flare 1431 UT May07
Solar wind speed: 320.2 km/sec