Around midnight UTC last night, Active Region 1429 on the Sun exploded with a fairly large flare: rated at class X5.4, it was among the largest seen in the current cycle. Video of the flare has been created using images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory:
[embed width="610"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rWB-lhUj-8[/embed]
Yowza. This flare was big enough that it may cause some communication issues and will probably lead to some nice aurorae, but otherwise is no danger to us here on Earth. I haven't heard much else, but I'll update this as I do.
Tip o' the SPF 5000 to Camilla Corona SDO.
Related Posts: - NASA’s guide to solar flares - Another big solar flare - Awesome X2-class solar flare caught by SDO - The Sun’s still blasting out flares… BIG ones
