Strong Solar Flare Erupts from Sun | NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Strong Solar Flare Erupts from Sun | NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on April 30, 2022, peaking at 9:47 a.m. EDT. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. This image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in red.

A red Sun, with a golden flare bursting from the top right.

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 X-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. More info on how flares are classified can be found here.

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.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Image/Video Capture Date: April 30, 2022

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