Scientists: Sun may be accumulating energy for superflare

Tengrinews.kz – On the Earth-facing side of the Sun, the largest sunspot complex of 2025 has formed, and it may be accumulating energy for a superflare. This assumption was made by scientists from the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“The southern group of sunspots, which rotated into view two days ago, has reached the largest size this year. The total area of the complex, measured earlier today, is 1,600 units,” the scientists reported.

This is about 60 percent of the size of the largest sunspot groups of the 21st century, but already one-third larger than the previous record of 1,200 units, recorded in May 2025.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which assigns numbers to sunspot groups, has split the new complex into three groups: 4296, 4294, and 4298.

The researchers described the “silence” of this huge group — where no significant activity is occurring — as “a mystery comparable in its strangeness to the no less fundamental problem of the silence of the Universe.”

“The group 4274, now located in the Sun’s northern hemisphere, produced a new X-class flare today despite having an official area of only 100 (!) units, and during its previous transit across the Earth-facing side produced five X-class flares with an area of 1,100.

Meanwhile, the newly formed southern complex — the largest of the year with an area of 1,600 — has produced only a single weak C-class flare in the past day. It is unclear where the tremendous amount of accumulated energy is going,” the scientists said.

The laboratory did not rule out that the new sunspot complex may be storing energy for a superflare.