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Photo of the day: Sun warms up for solar maximum with strong M-class flare

A stunning photo of an M6.5 class flare — the strongest flare seen so far this year — is captured at 3:16 EDT on April 11 by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. This image is a composite of light wavelengths at 131 and 171 Angstroms.

Although M-class flares are nowhere near as strong as X-class flares, which are about 10 times more powerful, they can still cause plenty of headaches by disturbing the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. Radio signals hit by radiation can be disrupted for as long as the flare lasts, anywhere from minutes to hours.

Big sunspot unleashes intense solar flare

A sunspot known as AR1654 produced the M1-class flare, according to officials with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Massive solar flare erupts from the sun
The same sunspot produced three strong flares before this massive one in just the two days since it became visible from Earth’s perspective.

NASA spots solar tentacle that’s half a million miles long
The tendril is actually a cooler clouds of solar material that is tethered above the sun’s surface by unstable magnetic forces.

Effects of solar flare expected to hit Earth today
The solar flare is likely only to land a glancing blow on Earth, but it is expected to bombard tiny Mercury.

Giant sunspot emits major solar flare
Since the flare erupted toward Earth, it may send a wave of charged particles toward our planet that could supercharge northern lights displays.

Sun erupts with most powerful summer solar flare yet
When aimed directly at Earth, solar flares and CMEs can endanger satellites and astronauts in orbit and interfere with GPS and communications signals.

Massive solar flare broke gamma ray light record
As the flare erupted, the sun briefly became the brightest object in the gamma-ray sky with rays that were 2 billion times more energetic than visible light.

Intense solar flare creates spectacular NASA photo
The flare occurred at the same time as coronal mass ejection, but luckily the eruption point wasn’t facing toward Earth.

Solar flare or refueling UFO?
The bulbous solar flare extension is actually a ‘prominence’ and contains cooler, denser plasma than the surrounding 3.5-million-degree Fahrenheit corona.

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