That’s likely sunspot 1039 in the bottom right of your pic of the sun. A comet did break up in a close pass by the sun today; image: http://www.spaceweather.com/images2010/03jan10/comet_c2_anim.gif?PHPSESSID=dnm8tsvkiuglhkaren4gnogcv0
That may be bigger news than the earthquake....