The Sun on Tuesday morning unleashed the most powerful solar flare in the last five years, prompting NASA scientists to warn that the burst of radiation could affect radio and satellite communications as well as electrical power grids.

According to NASA, the Sun sent out a 10 billion-ton storm cloud of charged particles through space at a speed of up to 5 million mph.

Last week, the Sun unleashed three solar flares, though no major disruptions were reported due to those storms of charged particles.

Joe Kunches from the Boulder, Colo.-based Space Weather Prediction Center said that the Sun was going through its twelve-year cycles marked by periods of high and low activity.

Speaking on the topic, Kunches said, “It's a big deal, because it really heralds the increase in solar activity that we're going to see over the next three to five years.”

Solar events peak after around every twelve years, and the next peak, known as a solar maximum, has been predicted to take place in 2013.

The most powerful solar flare known so far took place in 1859. Other powerful solar storms were let loose in 1921 and 1940. But those solar flare affected earthlings little as at that time there were not as many vulnerable electrical equipments as now.