The Sun on Tuesday unleashed a firestorm of radiation that created a large cloud that seemed to cover nearly half of the surface of the star, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory said.
The level of the firestorm of radiation, which peak at around 2:41 a. m. EDT, was not witnessed since 2006; however, scientists assured that the event will not have any big impact on our planet as the eruption was pointed directly at Earth.
A powerful firestorm on the Sun can disrupt satellites in space and power grids on Earth.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was launched in 2010, captured the event in high-definition and described it as “visually spectacular.”
Solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said, “The sun produced a quite spectacular prominence eruption that had a solar flare and high-energy particles associated with it, but I've just never seen material released like this before.”
The temperatures of the corona of the Sun normally range between 900,000 degrees F and 10.8 million degrees F. The temperature can reach tens of millions of degrees when a solar flare erupts.
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