An X-class (X7 according to Spaceweather.com) solar flare just occured from sunspot 1263, apparantly around 8:35 UTC.
X-class flares are the most powerful category of solar flares, which can cause all sorts of problems when earth-directed. It is currently unkown whether this is the case.
Last week has been an extremely active period, with 3 M-class CME’s (originating from sunspot 1261) merging into one large CME.
Conspirates.com thinks it’s strange that websites like spaceweather.com or NOAA.gov (so far) have not been writing about this X-class flare, although they did so almost immediately after the M-class flares from sunspot 1261 last week. Nevertheless, the automated graphs on their websites almost went off-scale for the current X-class flare.
UPDATE: according to Solarham.com the flare is not fully earth-directed.
update: NASA Stereo Beacon data of this event
Stereo Beacon data on sunspot 1263 flare
update: NASA Stereo Beacon data of this event
Stereo Beacon data on sunspot 1263 flare
update: NASA Stereo Beacon data of this event
Stereo Beacon data on sunspot 1263 flare
