A powerful X2 class explosion, considered the most powerful in recent years, was recorded on Friday (17). The event, followed by a solar storm that lasted more than an hour, caused interruptions to radio services on the sunny side of Earth.
A solar flare, also known as a “flare”, is a sudden explosion on a star’s surface caused by changes in the star’s magnetic field. The most recent one was caused by a sunspot called Active Zone 3229, according to the website. space weather.com.
Images of the massive solar flare were captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory probe, which is on a mission to observe the Sun. It appears at 44 seconds of the video below, which collects records of more than 30 such eruptions and 28 coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that occurred last week.
Happy #Sunday! This week’s space weather report has 36 notable solar flares, 28 coronal mass ejections, and no geomagnetic storms. This video of the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory features an X-class solar flare (the strongest type of flare) at 0:44. pic.twitter.com/u7YEyGMhND
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) February 19, 2023
The blast triggered a CME moving toward Earth at about 1.6 million km/h, making the aurora borealis more intense, colorful and visible the day after the event as far south as Idaho and New York in the United States. In addition to communications, solar storms can affect power systems, damaging some equipment.
How are solar flares classified?
Solar flares are classified by letters and numbers representing the intensity of each, according to the American space agency. Class A flares are the weakest, Class B, C, and M are medium, and Class X, like last week, are the strongest.
The numbers accompanying the letters represent the magnitude of the event – the higher the number, the stronger the explosion. The classification given by NASA for the eruption in question was X2.2, one of the largest recorded in the 25th Cycle of the Sun, which can pose problems for navigation systems and risks for spacecraft and astronauts.
Source: Tec Mundo
I’m Blaine Morgan, an experienced journalist and writer with over 8 years of experience in the tech industry. My expertise lies in writing about technology news and trends, covering everything from cutting-edge gadgets to emerging software developments. I’ve written for several leading publications including Gadget Onus where I am an author.
