Sunspot-Free Solar Region Drove a Rare Proton Burst as NOAA Posts a Minor Storm Watch
Nature World News | 08.09.2026 20:00
A patch of the Sun that solar forecasters had effectively written off produced the strongest flare of its reporting period and a burst of high-energy protons strong enough to leave visible specks across a spacecraft camera. The region, catalogued as Plage Region 4520, had decayed to plage roughly two days earlier, meaning it had lost the dark sunspots that normally mark a region capable of significant eruptions.
