NASA HAS RELEASED images of the largest solar flare to take place in four years – which occurred last week.
Radiation from the blast was predicted to reach Earth by Friday, and warnings of interuption to communications and navigation satellites – as well as an excellent show of aurora – were signposted by scientists.
A solar flare occurs when magnetic field lines on the sun’s surface get “short-circuited” and, in turn, release large amounts of energy into space, NASA explains. Last Monday, three such events occurred, the largest of them a so-called “class X event” — the most powerful form of solar flare possible.
NASA says that maximum solar activity is expected in the year 2013.
