On Tuesday (July 23), Europe’s Solar Orbiter (SolO) spacecraft observed an extremely powerful X14-class solar flare erupting from the far side of the Sun.
This was not the most powerful flare ever recorded, estimated at approximately X45 in 2003, but Solar flare Radiation of this magnitude could cause a long-lasting radiation storm and possibly a global blackout. EarthX-Class is at the top of the classification scale, ejecting energy ten times more powerfully than M-Class flares, which come in second on the list.
“This was the largest estimated GOES-class flare ever seen,” said Samuel Crooker, principal investigator of SolO’s X-ray Imaging Spectrometer and Telescope (STIX). He told SpaceWeather.com“The other large flares we detected are from May 20, 2024 (X12) and July 17, 2023 (X10). All of these originate from the far side of the Sun.”
A solar flare will occur on the far side of the sun on July 23, 2024. (Image courtesy of Helioviewer.org)
On the Earth side of the Sun, the largest flare recorded so far in the current cycle is Occurs on May 14, 2024X8.9, associated with violent sunspots Historical geomagnetic storms This led to the worldwide occurrence of the Aurora Borealis.
