The sun has fired off a massive solar flare and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite has managed to capture it in detail. NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shared two perspectives of the flare popping off in different wavelengths via a tweet.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center categorized the flare as an X1. Solar flares are measured similarly to earthquakes, with the biggest flares categorized as “X-class.” The smallest flares are “A-class.” Higher numbers mean flares are more intense. In 2003, NASA measured an X28, though an X1 is still a major flare.
We might see brighter auroras
Solar flares could have impacts on Earth. “Harmful radiation from 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,” NASA said in a statement.
Space weather physicist Tamitha Skov is tracking the flare and suggests the solar storm caused by the flare might reach our planet by October 31. It could cause brighter auroras, as the Earth experienced earlier this month.
Record-breaking solar flare
Previously, Astronomers Alycia Weinberger and Meredith MacGregor spotted a record-breaking outburst from the Sun’s closest neighbor – the star Proxima Centauri. Their finding could prove helpful in searching for life beyond our solar system. The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star that has a mass of about one-eighth the Sun’s mass. It is located around four light-years from the Sun and is orbited by at least two planets, one of which may be reminiscent of Earth.
The researchers used nine ground and space-based telescopes to observe the red dwarf star. They witnessed an extreme flare on May 1, 2019, with five telescopes that chronicled the timing as well its energy in striking detail.
