Something's happening in the sun again Two immense swarms of sunspots have popped into view on the surface of the sun, hinting at the increased possibilities of vivid auroras and potentially damaging solar flares over the months to come. Some of the sunspots are so gigantic that they could swallow Earth whole (https://bit.ly/3vVtdRV). Known as "active regions" 2993 and 2994 AR2993 and AR2994 (https://bit.ly/3Ox3bMW), the new sunspot groups seem to be followed by a third sunspot group - still hidden behind the sun's northeastern limb (or apparent edge) - that appears to have caused a powerful solar flare that missed the Earth a few days ago. Each swarm consists of several sunspots, and covers an area of hundreds of millions of square miles - much larger than Earth's diameter. They're caused by magnetic disruptions of the visible photosphere of the sun, which exposes the relatively cooler layers underneath. The sun’s magnetic entanglements and disentanglement happen in 11-year cycles, with each solar cycle having phases of low and high activity. Solar activity cycles have been numbered since 1775, when extensive recording of sunspot activity began. We are currently in Solar Cycle 25, which has yet to reach its peak, suggesting there will be even more sunspot activity to come. But! On April 15, 2022, a black cubic UFO was seen near the Sun (https://youtu.be/2yTMVXdijKg). The object then reappeared on April 17, 2022. But this time already inside the solar atmosphere.