A 3rd X-class flare rocks the sun

May 14, 2013 at 4:39 AM

Sun SDO UV May 14_edited-1 — The latest X3.2 flare in far ultraviolet light at 8:16 p.m. CDT Monday evening May 13 (May 14 Universal Time) photographed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA

Solar activity's been rising like nobody's business. Two of the year's most powerful flares fired off from the sun's backside late Sunday and at least 8 spot groups speckle the sun's white-hot surface today.

Sun STEREO behind 1-16 UT May14 — Another ultraviolet picture of the sun taken by NASA's STEREO Behind spacecraft late on May 13. The flare looks like a giant spike because the brilliance of the explosion saturated the camera sensors. STEREO Behind orbits well behind Earth and sees a part of the sun's backside not visible with Earth-based telescopes. Click to learn more about the STEREO probes. Credit: NASA

Now we can add a third strong X-ray class flare , an X3.2 that spewed a vast cloud of high-speed solar gases called a coronal mass ejection (CME). Lucky for Earth, it was directed - as the other flares were - away from our planet off the eastern edge of the sun's disk.

The most energetic flare measured in the modern era occurred on November 4, 2003 during the last solar maximum. No one knows how truly strong it became since the sensors topped out at X28. But any flare in the X-category can affect everything from GPS satellites to radio communications, satellite electronics and even fry poorly-protected power grids.

Sun SDO white light — The sun in normal white light late Monday with sunspot groups labeled. Region 1748 - site of the strong flares of the past few days - is just coming into view at far left. Credit: NASA

Solar flares typically occur in sunspot groups where magnetic energy is concentrated. The solar surface, which bubbles and churns like a monster pot of hot oatmeal, brings opposite magnetic fields (north and south poles) in contact with one another. When they reconnect, the sudden release of energy heats solar gases to many millions of degrees and blasts billions of solar electrons and protons into space as a CME. The amount of energy from a big flare like the ones we've seen recently equals millions of thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs.

Sun SDO flare May 14 LASCO C2 SOHO — A healthy CME (coronal mass ejection) in the wake of the most recent X3.2 flare late Monday. This photo was taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory which uses a special mask to block out the bright sun to better photograph it outer atmosphere. Credit: NASA / ESA

The sunspot group responsible for all the current feistiness goes by the name of 1748; it's just coming around to the sun's front side. Though highly foreshortened because we're peering at it along the extreme edge of the sun, you can tell it's a big one. Let's hope it kicks and sputters its way to a northern lights display without any serious damage to our favorite toys.

1/2: A flare seen in far ultraviolet light at 8:16 p.m. CDT Monday evening May 13 (May 14 Universal Time) photographed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA

2/2: Another ultraviolet picture of the sun taken by NASA's STEREO Behind spacecraft on May 14. The flare looks like a spike because its light overloaded the sensors. STEREO Behind orbits well behind Earth in its orbit and shows us the side of sun not visible from our planet. Credit: NASA

A 3rd X-class flare rocks the sun

Solar activity's been rising like nobody's business. Two of the year's most powerful flares fired off from the sun's backside late Sunday and at least 8 spot groups speckle the sun's white-hot surface today. Now we can add a...