Twisted magnetic fields on the Sun suddenly released on Monday, causing a massive flare of radiation that hurled a giant loop of plasma many times larger than the Earth out into space. This x-class flare was observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite. The video above shows SDO's view in different wavelengths of light. X-class solar flares are the biggest. This one was the strongest one yet observed this year, and one of the biggest during the current solar cycle. Here are six still images showing the start of the event in different wavelengths:
These images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory at 7:25 p.m. EST on Feb. 24, 2014, show the first moments of an X-class flare in different wavelengths of light – seen as the bright spot that appears on the left limb of the sun. Hot solar material hovers above the active region in the sun's atmosphere, the ...
