The sun kicked off December with a bang, unleashing a strong X1.9-class solar flare that briefly knocked out radio communications across Australia and parts of southeast Asia.

The eruption, which peaked at around 9:49 a.m. EST on Nov. 30 (0249 GMT Dec. 1) came from a newly emerging sunspot region AR429 as it rotated into view over the sun's northeastern limb.

The flare triggered a strong (R3) radio blackout across the sunlit side of Earth at the time of the eruption.

Coronagraph imagery from SOHO revealed a rapid partial-halo coronal mass ejection (CME), a release of plasma and magnetic field from the sun, blasting off the sun's northeast limb. Earth modelling confirms that the CME is not Earth-directed.

But the real story might be in the enormous sunspot region following closely behin

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