NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory keeps track of all the activities happening here The Solar Systemis the only star. America space agency has reported some busy days of activity between October 25 and October 28 that culminated with a significant solar flare.
The space agency has also shared a video of the increased motion on the Sun’s surface, which culminated in the release of a large solar flare in an active region on October 28.
These solar flares do not pose an immediate threat to us, at least those that are within Earth’s atmosphere. According to NASA, harmful radiation from a flare cannot travel through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However, the agency claims that when flares are intense enough – they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
In terms of intensity, the space agency has classified the latest solar flare under the X-class, the most intense flare. And within the X-class, a numerical suffix denotes the intensity of the flare. The flare is classified as an X1-class flare. The number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as fast as an X1, an X3 is three times as fast, and so on. Flares that are classified X10 or more powerful are considered unusually intense.
NASA has claimed that this was the second X-class flare of Solar Cycle 25, which began in December 2019. A new solar cycle occurs approximately every 11 years. NASA claims that during each cycle, the Sun transitions from relatively calm to active and stormy, and then calms down; At its peak, known as the solar maximum, the Sun’s magnetic poles reverse.
NASA’s fleet of heliophysics missions monitor the Sun and space to provide timely warnings and study the causes of such explosions on the Sun. Fleet work is important because these flares have the potential to affect astronauts and satellites outside Earth’s atmosphere.
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