Solar flares from a large sunspot could reach Earth, possibly creating damaging geomagnetic storms.



Spaceweather.com was reporting the sunspot, named AR1476, was crackling with M-class solar flares and appeared capable of producing X-class flares.



These flares were capable of triggering planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.



A solar flare occurs when energy stored in twisted magnetic fields is suddenly released.



AR1476 emerged at the weekend and the flares pose a threat from Friday.



The sunspot is enormous, some 160,000km across; that's the same as Earth placed side-by-side 12 times.

It is shaped similarly to the Hawaiian Islands.