Sun Unleashes Its 1st X-Class Monster Flare of 2015

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The sun unleashed its 1st super-powerful flare of the year upon Wednesday, and the intense eruption was targeted directly at Earth, space weather specialists say.

The particular monster X-class solar flare, the strongest category regarding sun storms, originated from a sunspot generally known as Active Region 12297 and peaked on 12: 22 p.m. ET. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory taken stunning video of the X2.2-class outburst since it erupted.

AR12297 has fired off quite a few medium-strength flares over the previous few days. Wednesday's event ratcheted points up a notch, causing an hourlong blackout within high-frequency radio communications over wide areas, in accordance with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Centre.

Solar flares are often associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, enormous clouds regarding superheated plasma which streak through space at millions of miles hourly. While the radiation from a flare reaches Earth in only minutes, it typically takes CMEs several days for getting here. Powerful Earth-directed CMEs may cause geomagnetic storms which disrupt power grids and also satellite navigation.

It's not yet obvious whether a CME is connected with Wednesday's event. Nonetheless, the Space Weather Prediction Center previously has issued a minor geomagnetic storm alert for Friday in anticipation regarding three earlier CMEs.

Source:: This atop story is based on materials provided by the NBC NEWS and image credit also.

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