The Most Powerful Solar Flare Ever Recorded

Webmasters Note: Please notice... this is the same article that NASA posted yesterday. However in this one the solar flare has been upgraded from yesterday from an X17 to and X20. There have been other reports stating that it was an X22. Without a doubt, it is the largest ever recorded.

The most powerful solar flare ever recorded -- an X20-class event -- erupted near sunspot 9393 at 2150 UT on April 2nd. The event was even stronger than a well-known flare in March 1989 that led to the collapse of a power grid in Quebec. There were no such calamities this time, however, because sunspot 9393 -the source of the explosion- is near the Sun's west limb; the bulk of the explosion was directed away from Earth.

A cannibal coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on April 2nd could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetosphere during the next 24 hours. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% of severe geomagnetic storming at middle latitudes.

The flux of 10 MeV solar protons surrounding our planet has soared to approximately 10,000 times normal. Such radiation levels pose no appreciable hazard to air travelers, astronauts or satellites. The ongoing radiation storm is a NOAA S2- to S3-category event.

Powerful Solar Flares Since 1976 -- today's flare ranks second in this 25-year list compiled by IPS Radio & Space Services.

See more images of Monday's record-setting flare -- from the ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

Right: Monday's explosion hurled a coronal mass ejection into space. The expanding cloud raced away from the Sun's western limb -- and mostly away from Earth. The many speckles peppering this SOHO coronagraph image are energetic solar particles striking the instrument's CCD camera.

SUNSPOT 9393: In just a few days AR9393 --the largest sunspot since 1991-- will disappear over the Sun's western limb. The behemoth spot is slowly shrinking, but it is still a whopper covering an area of the solar disk equivalent to ten planet Earths. There's still time to see this huge spot for yourself, but be careful: Looking directly at the Sun can cause permanent eye damage.