CHRISTMAS EVE ERUPTION (2011-12-24 08:09:32 - 2011-12-24 09:08:56 UTC)

A filament of magnetism connected to sunspot AR1386 erupted during the early hours of Dec. 24th. The C5-class eruption hurled a billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) into space, but not toward Earth. With the cloud sailing wide-left of our planet, Christmas geomagnetic storms are unlikely. Nevertheless, this active region merits watching as it turns toward Earth in the days ahead, possibly positioning itself for the first storms of 2012.