Image: Sun releases strong solar flare

Sun releases strong solar flare
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare—as seen in the bright flash on the top right—on Oct. 2, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in orange. Credit: NASA/SDO

The sun emitted a strong solar flare that peaked at 4:25 p.m. EDT on Oct. 2, 2022. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

This flare is classified as an X1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

More information: To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at spaceweather.gov

Provided by NASA

Citation: Image: Sun releases strong solar flare (2022, October 3) retrieved 7 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2022-10-image-sun-strong-solar-flare.html
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NASA's SDO sees sun release strong solar flare

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