Nasa has released images of what it says is the most powerful solar flare in six years, a fiery flash on the sun’s surface 93m miles away that knocked out some radio communication on Earth for a short time on Thursday.
The agency captured the brightly colored imagery of the phenomenon known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) from its solar dynamics observatory, a spacecraft launched in 2010 that constantly monitors the sun’s activity.
It was, Nasa says, an X-class flare of the highest intensity, with the potential to affect radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
Thursday’s burst of energy caused about two hours of radio interference in some parts of the US and elsewhere during daylight hours. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric and Administration’s space weather prediction center called it an “amazing event … likely one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded”.
The center said its impact on radio communications was felt between midday and 2pm ET on Thursday, and that its scientists were analyzing other effects of the CME “located over the far north-west area of the sun”.
It was the strongest solar flare recorded since 10 September 2017, the center said, and the most powerful of the current solar cycle by some distance.
Most X-class solar flares to impact Earth are graded between one and nine, with Thursday’s event classified as an X8.
The European Space Agency said the most powerful solar flare in recorded history was an X28 event on 4 November 2003.
