Watch the incredible moment the sun unleashed a powerful solar flare this week.
The sun has seen two solar flare eruptions over the past week, with the first being on February 5, and another today, February 9. The latest flare triggered shortwave radio blackouts across South America, Africa and the Southern Atlantic.
Although it seems quite impressive, it luckily avoided directly firing towards Earth, as it was on the other side.
Solar physicist Keith Strong posted on Twitter (X): “Goodness knows how big this flare would have been if it had happened this side of the sun.”
The recent flare also saw a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is when a large magnetic field and plasma are released from the sun.
Alex Young, heliophysicist said: “There was a clear eruption with a coronal wave suggesting a very fast CME to the west”.
The X-flare caused radio backouts because of a strong pulse of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation that was heading toward Earth at the time, although we weren’t in the firing line. These rays travel at the speed of light and took eight minutes for the radiation to arrive on our planet.
The clip of the solar flare eruption earlier this week fired a hot plasma plume at speeds of 400 km/s. It began 8.30pm EST and peaked at 10.15pm.
What are solar flares?
Solar flares trigger when magnetic energy builds up in the atmosphere. That energy is then released in an intense burst, and they are categorized into letter groups. X-class solar flares are the most powerful, followed by M-class, which are 10 times smaller. Following that, there are then C-class, B-class and A-class flares that are too weak to affect Earth, writes Space.com.
A solar flare is the largest explosive event in our solar system and is seen as a bright area of the sun. They can last between minutes to hours, and we typically recognize a flare through the light or photons it releases, explains NASA.
What happens when a CME hits Earth?
If a CME were to hit Earth, it could disturb our magnetic field and cause a geomagnetic storm. This would prove difficult for satellites orbiting the planet. However, it would cause a beautiful display of auroras around the globe, so it would be a sight to see.
Following the latest sunspot, it’s unlikely any CME from the recent flare will strike us. Instead, it’ll probably pass by us underneath.
The sun has been incredibly active lately, as it’s about to approach the most active period of its 11-year solar cycle, also referred to as a solar maximum. On February 8, M-class flares crackling on the surface of the sun were big enough to be seen by the Perseverance Rover currently on Mars.
