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Solar Cycle 25

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Sun Releases Strong Flare

The Sun emitted a strong flare, peaking at 3:30 a.m. ET on Nov. 14. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured imagery of the event.

A close-up of the Sun shows the bright explosion of a solar flare
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this footage of a solar flare — seen as the bright flash in the center of the image — on Nov. 14. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in bronze.
NASA/SDO/Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory

This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the same flare as above in a full-disk view at the 131-angstrom wavelength, colorized in teal. The channel reveals solar material at temperatures of about 18 million degrees Fahrenheit (10 million Kelvin) characteristic of the superheated plasma in flares.
NASA/SDO/Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory

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 X4.0 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.