Powerful solar flare is headed towards Earth, Nasa says

Blast is most powerful to emerge from the Sun in years

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare — seen as the bright flash in the center – on Oct. 3, 2024. The image shows subsets of extreme ultraviolet light that highlight the extremely hot material in flares and which are colorized in red and gold (NASA/SDO)

A powerful solar flare has been hurled out of the Sun, and could cause disruption on Earth.

The flare comes amid increasing solar activity that has brought a run of intense space weather in recent days and weeks.

Only a day before, the Sun had released a slightly less powerful but still strong solar flare, according to the US Space Weather Prediction Center. The recent activity had already led to radio blackouts and other effects.

As with previous flares, the newly released one could cause disruptions to communications and bring aurorae such as the northern lights that might be visible at lower latitudes.

The Sun goes through a roughly 11-year cycle during which its activity rises and falls. At the moment, it is approaching the high point of that cycle, which is expected next year – bringing increased activity and more solar flares of this kind.

The newly released flare is classed as X9.0. The X-class denotes the most intense flares, and the number refers to the strength.

At those numbers, it may be the most powerful flare to have been released in this solar cycle.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that are hurled out of the Sun. When they arrive at Earth, they can affect radio communications, power grids, navigation systems, satellites and astronauts in space.

Earlier this year, in May, the Earth was subject to a series of solar storms that were the most powerful in decades, and led to aurorae that were visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres.