Since rotating into view, the sunspot group AR12192 has continued to grow in size and complexity, becoming the largest sunspot of the current solar cycle, cycle 24 (SC24.) The region has produced numerous C and M-class flares including an X1 flare. 
 
 As of Oct. 22, 2014 (11 UT) the region’s trailing spots have an area of 2410 MH or millionths of a visible solar hemisphere. The largest sunspot up until now had been AR11967 on Feb. 5, 2014, measuring 1580 MH. MH is a standard measure used by astronomers for sunspot area. A sunspot that measures 300-500 MH is generally considered big. Just to provide some scale, the surface area of Earth is 169 MH. This means that AR12192 is 14 times larger than the surface area of Earth. 
 
 Here is a table showing the largest 6 sunspots from the current solar cycle, cycle 24 (SC24.) 
 
 Top 6 Largest Sunspots in Solar Cycle 24 Year Month Day Active Region # Area (MH) Largest Flare 2014 Oct 22 12192 2410 X1 2014 Feb 5 11967 1580 M5 2011 Nov 5 11339 1540 X1 2012 Jul 13 11520 1460 X2 2011 Sep 25 11302 1300 X1 2012 Mar 8 11429 1270 X5 
 
 A famous giant sunspot is AR9393. On March 29, 2001, the region measured 2440 MH, just slightly bigger than AR12192. 
 
 Later in that solar cycle, cycle 23 came a bigger sunspot, AR10486 (2610 MH) from the famous Halloween Storms of 2003. 
 
 But even this monster spot is not the biggest. Two larger sunspots of note are the spot of March 1989 that triggered the infamous geomagnetic storm that crippled the Quebec, Canada power grid and the Great Sunspot of 1947, which came in at a whopping 6000+ MH or 3 times AR9393. David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center solar physics group created a graph showing the size of the largest individual sunspots each year from 1900 to 2000. 
 
 credit: NASA/GSFC/MSFC/SDO/spaceweather.com/helioviewer 

 Close 
 
 A monster sunspot big enough it can be easily seen by a properly shielded naked eye, is brewing what strong solar storms. 
 
 Sunspots are active regions in the solar surface that look like dark spots. They are caused by intense magnetic activity and can cause flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which are known to threaten power and communication systems when directed to the Earth. 
 
 The sunspot known as AR 12192 appeared on the sun's eastern side on Oct. 17 and since then was predicted to be enormous. Over the past few days, it has grown bigger and is now almost 80,000 miles across, or about the size of planet Jupiter, the kind that has not been seen for a long time. The AR 12192 is so far the largest of the current 11-year solar cycle that started six years ago in January 2008. 
 
 The monster sunspot, which is currently being monitored by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), has already spewed X-class flares one on Oct. 19 and the other on Oct. 22 causing high frequency radio blackouts. X-class flares are categorized as the most powerful of solar flares and they are associated with solar radiation storms particularly if they come with CMEs. 
 
 AR 12192 has not directed CMEs to the Earth's direction so far but it has already produced several flares include two X-class flares, eight M-class flares, which are of medium strength, and 27 less powerful C-class flares. The X1.6 flare it spewed on Wednesday, created a very bright eruption in the lower corona of the sun, which was captured by the SDO. 
 
 "So far, this active region - labeled AR 12192 - has produced several significant solar flares," NASA said. "Active regions are more common at the moment as we are in what's called solar maximum, which is the peak of the sun's activity, occurring approximately every 11 years." 
 
 Forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted on Friday of more solar flares with 95 percent probability that the sun will spawn M-class flares and 55 percent odds of X-flares within the next 24 hours. 
 
 "So far none of the CMEs associated with these events are expected to be geoeffective, however, forecasters will keep an eye out for both CME activity and solar radiation storm possibility as the region approaches center disk," NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said in a statement. 
 
 The largest sunspot recorded was spotted in 1947 and this was nearly three times as big as the AR 12192. 
 
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– Scientists scratched their heads this week over a massive sunspot, partly because it posed no threat to human civilization. The burst of solar magnetic activity, one of the biggest on record, whipped up powerful flares but didn't spew coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can bring down Earth's power grids or damage satellites, Space.com reports. "It tends to be the case that when you have a big flare, you generally get a big CME," says NASA scientist C. Alex Young. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monitored the sunspot (called Active Region 12192) for "geoeffective" CMEs just in case, Tech Times reports, and there's a chance that AR 12192 will still be active after its two-week trip on the sun's far side. "Some have gone around a couple times," says Young. Another head-scratcher: Scientists still don't know how sunspots grow as big as AR 12192, which was almost 80,000 miles wide or about the size of Jupiter—the largest sunspot in 24 years, the 33rd largest since 1874, and, The Sun Today notes, 14 times bigger than Earth's surface. Scientists do know that the sun is near its solar maximum—the apex of its solar cycle, which comes every 11 years—so magnetic energy is bubbling up. But why in one place rather than another? "I guess a good analogy is when you twist a rubber band or piece of string," says Young. "Why do, say, three knots or bunches form instead of two or four? The physics is probably too complicated for us at this point." If AR 12192 does come back around, you should only observe it with eclipse glasses; Space.com helps out with a "sun observation guide." (Did sunspots have anything to do with the sinking of the Titanic?)