Two solar spacecraft captured a magnificent long-lasting solar flare in a video that lasted about three hours.
YouTube / Astronomy
Read also: Solar storms seen in 1582 could hit the Earth again and cause damage, scientists warn
First reported by Space.com, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory witnessed the incident at various wavelengths. The flare was classified as M3.4 (a middle class) and yet was powerful enough to cause temporary radio outages in the Asia-Pacific region.
For those who don’t know, solar flares fall into three categories: C, M, and X, with C being the weakest and X the strongest and most shocking.
This recent incident was also related to a coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive cloud of overheated plasma coming out of the solar surface at extreme speeds. This was captured by both NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Solar Heliosphere Observatory (a NASA / ESA spacecraft launched in 1995).
What is surprising is that both ships turned out to be complementary, despite their different orbits. Unbeknownst to them, SOHO orbits the Sun at Lagrange Point 1, a gravitationally stable point in space about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the direction of the Sun.
What are solar flares and CMEs?
According to NASA, a solar flare is an intense burst of radiation that comes from the release of magnetic energy linked to sunspots.
These are considered some of the biggest explosive events in our solar system. These are basically X-ray and energy bursts that travel at the speed of light in all directions of the solar system.
Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, on the other hand, are massive clouds of particles that are ejected into space from the Sun’s atmosphere.
The outer solar atmosphere, called the corona, is made up of strong magnetic fields. In places where these fields are closed, the solar atmosphere can spontaneously release gas bubbles and magnetic fields, which are called coronal mass ejections.
YouTube / Astronomy
Read also: Why do solar storms occur? How to protect the Internet, life on Earth from solar storms
CMEs can contain a billion tons of matter and can be launched at several million miles per hour in a massive explosion. Explosions are capable of creating an impact on any planet or spacecraft as it passes. They arrive on Earth in about two or three days, but only when the cloud is directed at the Earth during the explosion.
Check out the stunning solar activity below
To learn more about the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.