14 DAY TRIAL // Solar physicists at NASA announce that the Sun has released a new, powerful solar flare on Tuesday, November 19. The event may have been strong enough to affect electronic devices on Earth and in orbit around our planet, but there will be no way of assessing potential damages until the charged solar particles reach our planet.
Observations conducted with the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite have revealed that the latest solar discharge was a X1.0-class event, meaning that it belongs to the category that includes the most powerful explosions the Sun is capable of.
SDO data also revealed that the flare originated in an active region called AR 1893. In the image above, this area can be seen to the right. Since the event occurred, the active region has moved behind the Sun, as seen from our vantage point.
Events such as this will become increasingly common as the Sun nears its maximum, a point in its 11-year cycle when the highest degree of activity is recorded. This will most likely occur sometime in early 2014, though there is no way to figure out for certain when a solar maximum has passed.