Strong Solar Flare Erupts from Sun

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 1:53 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

A triptych of the Sun shows the bright burst of a solar flare erupting in different wavelengths of light — NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the right of each image – on Feb. 16, 2024. The images show three subsets of extreme ultraviolet light that highlight the extremely hot material in flares and which are colorized in teal, gold, and red. Credit: 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 X2.5 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.