Sun unleashes massive solar flare of X1.6-class

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The sun emitted a huge solar flare on September 10, 2014.

The image captured by NASA`s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows that the solar flare erupted in the middle of the Sun.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation.

Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth`s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

This flare is classified as an X1.6-class 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.

(With Agency inputs)