The Sun has emitted a total of 28 solar flares in just seven days, giving out solar materials and radiation moving through the space.
According to NASA, in just a matter of 7 days, the sun has emitted 28 times and more is yet to come. Of those 28 eruptions, four were surprisingly strong X-class flares which happened between October 23 and 30 and the rest are medium strength M-class solar flares.
An X-class flare is the biggest and strongest among all class of flares and is capable of causing extreme damage to Earth, strong radio blackouts, and satellite damages. An M-class flare, on the other hand, is less powerful than the latter but is capable of causing radio blackouts as well.
Though this not really unusual because we are currently at the height of the 11-year cycle of the sun’s activity, the noted eruptions in the sun are remarkably calm, plus, the sun is rather quiet all summer long.
As scientists have noted, majority of the flares were from the sunspot AR1884, a region at the center of the sun and is facing Earth as of the moment. It is the part of the sun where magnetic fields are entwined.
Holly Gilbert, a solar physicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told LA Times, “You get a tangled bunch of magnetic fields, and they get too tangled and too stressed, they end up erupting.”
If the sunspot AR1884 continues to be active, there will be more eruptions and radiation and solar material sent off.
On the brighter side, since Earth has an atmosphere that protects it from the Sun’s occasional outbursts of light and radiation, none of last week’s sun’s solar flares caused damage on the planet. However, because radiation can reach the atmosphere’s ionosphere, the uppermost layer, it caused some disruptions on Earth's communications system.
Gilbert said that his team at Goddard were really ecstatic to see the sun being active again after last summer.
He said, "It hadn't been active in months, so it's like it finally woke up," she said. "For those of us who study the dynamics of the sun, it is exciting because it gives us more events to study."
