Solar flares are very powerful and intense explosions of energy.
The Sun emitted a powerful solar flare on October 2, 2022, peaking at 4:25 p.m. EDT.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which constantly watches the Sun, captured an image of this event of the solar flare on Oct 2, 2022 — as seen in the bright flash on the top right.
This image depicts a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that is colorized orange and highlights the extremely hot material in flares.
This flare is classified as an X1-class solar flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
Solar flares and eruptions can pose astronauts and spacecraft at risk as well as also can impact radio communications, electric power grids, and navigation signals on Earth.
Please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center to know how such space weather may affect Earth. It is the U.S. government's official source for space weather predictions, watches, warnings, & alerts.
NASA is the nation's research branch for space weather. NASA constantly monitors the Sun and our space environment.
With a fleet of spacecraft, NASA studies everything from the Sun's activity to the solar atmosphere, as well as the particles and magnetic fields in space around Earth.