NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a mid-level solar flare on the Sun — as seen in the bright spot in the lower centre of the solar disc on 24 August 2015. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot solar material, which is typically colourised in red. Image credits: NASA/SDO.The Sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 8:33am BST on 24 August 2015. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from such a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.
This flare is classified as an M 5.6 class flare. M-class flares are a tenth the size of the most intense flares, the X-class flares. The number provides more information about its strength. An M2 is twice as intense as an M1, an M3 is three times as intense, etc.
A partial eclipse of the Sun is set to wow North Americans this afternoon (23 October) as the Moon’s silhouette will be seen to cover as much as 50 percent of the Sun from the USA, and up to 80 percent of the Sun in northern Canada.
Astronomers have found evidence for a complex mechanism that may explain how the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, is driven to such extreme temperatures.
The Earth’s magnetic field is produced by the geodynamo, the rapid motion of huge quantities of liquid iron alloy in the Earth’s outer core. A team of French researchers suggests that elastic deformation of our planet’s mantle due to tidal effects caused by the Moon — overlooked until now — transfers energy to the Earth’s outer core, keeping the geodynamo active.
