The sun has somewhat surprised forecasters today with a dramatic X-class solar flare from a newly emerging sunspot region.

The intense solar flare originated from sunspot region AR4046 and was accompanied by a spectacular filament eruption and coronal mass ejection (CME) — an expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun.

When CMEs (also known as solar storms) hit Earth's magnetosphere they can trigger active geomagnetic storm conditions resulting in impressive auroras. However, the CME in this event is unlikely to impact Earth due to the current location of the sunspot region. "The CME that followed may not be Earth-directed; the region was too close to the east limb," solar physicist Halo CME wrote in a post on X.