Not Done Yet! NASA captures biggest solar flare, but Earth safe this time

Not Done Yet! National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in its recent update has announced that the Sun produced its biggest flare nearly in two decades on Tuesday, just two days after the severe solar storm stroked the Earth and created dazzling northern lights in unaccustomed places.

According to NOAA, the good news is that Earth will be out of line of fire this time, because the flare that was erupting this time on Sun was rotating away from Earth. Notably, it is the biggest flare of this 11-year solar cycle.
NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory has captured the bright flash of X-ray flare, which is strongest since 2005, rated on the scale of X8.7.

It is worth to be noted that images shared by NASA shows its peaking at 12:51pm on May 14. According to NASA, the high frequency signals may experience temporary degradation or complete loss of signal on much of the sunlit side of Earth. 

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on May 14, 2024, peaking at 12:51pm ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as X8.7. https://t.co/njaYS2IutE pic.twitter.com/oIJn2gmIUF

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) May 14, 2024

This has come just after a couple of days after Earth witnessed solar storm and which is more likely to impact the communications and power grids. Not only this, it may pose threat spacecrafts and astronauts also.

According to the sources, NASA has claimed that due to the weekend geomagnetic storm its one of the environmental satellites has rotated unexpectedly and is going to be on protective hibernation known as safe mode. In addition to this, the International Space Station has advised it’s the seven astronauts to stay in areas with strong radiation shielding.

What are Solar flares?

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS & communications signals travel.