The first X-class solar flare in quite some time — and the first of year — was released from the Sun on March 11, 2015. The giant solar flare was actually directed exactly at the Earth, and is known to have caused an hour-long high-frequency radio communications blackout in many areas — according to researchers
An incredibly powerful X4.9-class solar flare erupted from the Sun on February 24, 2014, peaking right around 7:49 pm EST, according to NASA. The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a number of images and some footage of the event. The solar flare is by far the strongest seen yet this year, and one of the strongest
The strongest solar flare yet seen by NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) was recently captured in a beautiful new image. The flare, which erupted from the Sun at 2:40 pm EST on January 28, 2014, registered as an M-class solar flare — a moderate flare, not as strong as the powerful X-class flares, but
A solar flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME) both erupted from the Sun on the summer solstice — June 20, 2013, right around 11:24 pm. The CME was Earth-directed, but not of particular strength — a mild geomagnetic storm is expected. According to current NASA estimates, the CME left the Sun at speeds of
New insight into the growth processes of young stars has been gained as a result of a solar eruption that was caught on film by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory back in June of 2011. On June 7, 2011, the Sun erupted, blowing large masses of hot plasma out into space; some of this plasma then
The flare star WX UMa was recently observed releasing a solar flare (stellar flare) that was so powerful that the star itself became 15 times brighter in a matter of just a couple of minutes. The flare was observed by researchers at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and the Byurakan Observatory in
Another powerful X-class solar flare just erupted from the Sun — the third within only 24 hours. the solar flare registered as a X3.2, making it the most powerful solar flare of the year. This third flare peaked in intensity at about 9:11 pm EDT on May 13, 2013. The previous two flares, an X1.7
The two strongest solar flares of the year just erupted from the Sun — an X1.7 and an X2.8 — the first X-class solar flares of the year. A coronal mass ejection (CME) also erupted from the Sun at the same time, though it is not Earth-directed. The CME was traveling at about 1,200 miles
The biggest solar flare of the year just erupted from the Sun on Thursday, April 11, right at 3:16 AM EDT (0716 GMT). The powerful solar eruption was also accompanied by a large coronal mass ejection (CME), and caused a temporary radio blackout on the Earth, according to NASA officials. The solar flare registered as
Solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and other solar activity, will likely pick back up sometime later this year, before 2013 is over, according to researchers at NASA. The sun has been somewhat quiet lately, even though 2013 is expected to be the year of peak solar activity for Solar Cycle 24. The reason for
A sun-grazing comet and a solar eruption have been caught on film together by NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft. The video shows comet Pan-STARRS and a massive coronal mass ejection (CME), caused by a recent solar flare, together in a striking new video. Comet Pan-STARRS is visible in the film as it’s moving through the inner
A large solar flare erupted from the Sun on March 5th, accompanied by a large CME. As a result NASA decided to temporarily power down their Mars rover Curiosity, in order to help protect it from the blast. Curiosity has already been dealing with a computer glitch and subsequent switch to a backup over the
Video of the coronal plasma rain on the Sun that we reported on earlier has now been released by NASA. The amazing video shows the event throughout its formation and duration, it’s awesome. There is a very wide variation in the types of eruptive events that occur on the Sun, even if you’ve already watched
Enormous loops of super-hot plasma, much bigger than the Earth, are seen raining down onto the surface of the Sun in a spectacular new video just released by NASA. The plasma rain was caught on film by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) last year when a mid-strength solar flare was released from the Sun on
A very large solar eruption just occurred on January 13, 2013, in the early morning hours. The Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME, is very likely to trigger a strong Northern Lights display this week, researchers from NASA say. But not powerful enough to cause problems for satellites or other electronics. A CME, which is
The Sun erupted on a truly enormous scale on New Tear’s Eve, and NASA captured video of the eruption on film. The eruption was so large that that it could encompass more than 20 Earth sized planets. The solar eruption was caught on film by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The SDO is a permanently
A very large Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the Sun on September 27th, 2012 at 10:25 p.m. EDT. CMEs are solar eruptions that send billions of tons of solar particles into space, that then make their way to the Earth in one to three days if the blast was directed that way.
The gigantic sunspot known as AR1520 released another powerful solar flare early on Thursday July 19th. The solar storm isn’t expected to pose any serious problems to us here on Earth, researchers say. The solar flare erupted from AR 1520 at 1:13 a.m. EDT (0513 GMT) Thursday and peaked about 45 minutes later. The flare
The strongest solar flare of the summer, so far, erupted from the sun on Friday, July 6. It’s the latest in a run of powerful solar storms this week. The solar storm happened just after 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) and was observed to be a class X1.1 solar flare. X-class flares are the strongest
Solar flares 10,000 times stronger than any ever observed on our sun can be released by stars similar to ours, according to new research. Just one solar flare of that magnitude would greatly damage the ozone layer, and cause mass extinctions. The research was done by using NASA’s Kepler Probe to monitor 83,000 sunlike
I don’t watch a heap of news, so I was surprised to hear that people are expecting 2012 to end thanks to a massive solar flare as a result of the oncoming solar maximum. Thankfully, even as I heard about it, I was reliably informed by scientists from NASA that such an event is a ‘physical impossibility’.
This Spring has been pretty exciting for solar activity…Following the ending of the longest ‘solar minimum’ in more than a century, our sun’s activity (solar cycle 24) picked up considerably over the course of the month of May, culminating in an impressive M-2 class (medium size) solar flare and “spectacular” coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7.
