Huge solar flare erupts from the biggest sunspot for the first time in 24 years

Huge solar flare erupts from the biggest sunspot for the first time in 24 years The sunspot can be compared to Jupiter in its size, i.e. the biggest planet in the solar system.

This sunspot has in over two decades for the time unleashed the greatest solar flare this Friday on October 24, 2014. This has so far been the fourth intense solar storm from the sun in less than a week.

The solar flare had occurred on the afternoon of Friday, which reached its peak at 21:41 GMT. This triggered a strong radio frequency blackout, which caused all radio and TV frequencies to stop momentarily. The NASA’s sun watching observatory had recorded the video of this solar flare.

The flare had erupted from the sunspot called AR-12192 and it was known to be a X3.1-class storm. This is one of the strongest types of solar storms, however, it is not the first time that this has happened. This has been the fourth flare from this active region in this week. On Sunday, 19 October, the sunspot had fired yet another major X1.1 class solar flare, which was then followed by another intense M8.7-class flare on October 22nd, Wednesday. This was later followed by an X1.6 event on Friday.

This spot AR-12192 can be compared to Jupiter in its size. This is one of the largest sunspots of the kind ever since November, 1990. Moreover, the sunspot is larger than the one that appeared during the Halloween of 2003, which had released a number of large solar flares.

The sunspot was hard to miss on Thursday, October 23 during the great solar eclipse visible from North America. X-class solar flares are the strongest eruptions that can take place on the sun’s surface. When they aim at the earth directly, they can potentially endanger astronauts, spacecrafts in space and disturb communication, radio and navigation signals. Another type, known as the M-Class flares are moderate storms that can charge the Earth’s aurora views.

Other weaker types of solar storms are categorized as C-class, B-class and A-class storms.

Solar flares are actually bursts of radiation. Harmful radiations from the sun cannot cross through the Earth’s atmosphere to effect the humans on earth, however, they can affect the atmospheric layer where communications and GPS signals travel. However, the X-class flares can release power in heavy amounts. Despite their power, the solar flare that was released on Friday, towards the earth, did not cause much damage to any of the satellites and astronauts in the outer space.

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