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Sun Releases Strong Flare

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 7:13 a.m. ET on Feb. 4. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. 

The Sun against a black background. The Sun is colorized primarily in blue, with some brighter purple areas scattered across the star showing higher activity areas. Toward the upper center of the star, there is a bright flash in white and red, which looks like an X -- the solar flare.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare — seen as the bright flash toward the upper middle — on Feb. 4, 2026. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in blue and red.
NASA/SDO

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

This flare is classified as an X4.2 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.