Sun Unleashes Its 6th Flare In Three Weeks
Saturday, November 9, 2013 - 15:40
in Astronomy & Space
The sun emitted its sixth significant flare since Oct. 23, 2013, peaking at 11:26 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2013. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation - the radiation from a flare can't pass through Earth's atmosphere to affect us but, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This flare is classified as an X1.1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc. read more