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![The three biggest solar flares of the year all happened in a 24-hour period yesterdayWhen the sun fired off a massive flare late on Sunday, it was the strongest solar eruption this year. That was until another, even stronger flare followed it a few hours later. Soon a third flare, almost twice as powerful as the first blasted out of the sun.“The [third flare] was also associated with a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The CME began at 9:30 p.m. EDT and was not Earth-directed. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at approximately 1,400 miles per second, which is particularly fast for a CME. The models suggest that it will catch up to the two CMEs associated with the earlier flares,” NASA said on it’s website.Solar flares are graded as A, B, C, M or X with each category being ten times more powerful than the one before it. The flares in the past day were all “X” flares, the first ones of 2013.“‘X-class’ denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. (NASA/SDO/AIA)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/6e30a75f3303d44ae27ae6675bc56f89/tumblr_mmt2s7Qkb81qze0z6o1_1280.jpg)
The three biggest solar flares of the year all happened in a 24-hour period yesterday
When the sun fired off a massive flare late on Sunday, it was the strongest solar eruption this year. That was until another, even stronger flare followed it a few hours later. Soon a third flare, almost twice as powerful as the first blasted out of the sun.
“The [third flare] was also associated with a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The CME began at 9:30 p.m. EDT and was not Earth-directed. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at approximately 1,400 miles per second, which is particularly fast for a CME. The models suggest that it will catch up to the two CMEs associated with the earlier flares,” NASA said on it’s website.
Solar flares are graded as A, B, C, M or X with each category being ten times more powerful than the one before it. The flares in the past day were all “X” flares, the first ones of 2013.
“‘X-class’ denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. (NASA/SDO/AIA)
A pair of steamy explosions on the Sun’s surface in recent days is sparking the biggest radiation and geomagnetic storm the Earth has experienced in five years, space weather experts said Wednesday. Read the full story
