The sun, which goes through cycles of activity that last about 11 years, is now entering a solar maximum. The flares all occurred in a region of the sun that recently rotated toward Earth. Still, our home star's current liveliness is much weaker than other solar maximums on record, Space.com reports. Check out a more detailed explanation of the three recent flares there, and check out Discover magazine's ImaGeo blog for descriptions of some powerful past solar events.