Two massive solar flares were seen being released from the sun on Saturday by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The flares were categorized by NASA as X5.8 and X1.5-class flares. The largest solar flares are classified as X-class. B-class solar flares are the smallest; C and M classes come next. Each letter denotes a ten-fold increase in energy production, making them comparable to the Richter scale used to measure earthquakes.
NASA tweeted, “The Sun emitted two strong solar flares on May 10-11, 2024, peaking at 9:23 pm EDT on May 10, and 7:44 am EDT on May 11. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the events, which were classified as X5.8 and X1.5-class flares.”
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X-class flares have a power greater than ten times that of an X1, meaning they can exceed nine. Space agencies saw the strongest known flare during the solar maximum in 2003. The flare was eventually calculated to be at X45 when the sensors that were monitoring it became overloaded and shut off at X17. Prolonged radiation storms can be produced by these X-class flares. Such X-class flares, according to a NASA blog, have the potential to damage satellites, cause protracted radiation storms, and even slightly increase the radiation doses of passengers on airplanes.
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“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,” NASA said in its tweet.
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After stunning people in the United States, Tasmania, and the Bahamas the day before, auroras lit up the skies over large portions of the world on Saturday for the second night in a row. The dazzling celestial displays, known as the “northern lights,” are typically limited to the planet’s far north due to a strong solar storm that may last until Sunday.
