When you purchase through links on our situation , we may gain an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it exploit .
What it is : Asolar flareexploding on the sunshine ’s surface
When it was taken : Oct. 28 , 2003
NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft captured this image of an enormous X-class solar flare as it erupted from the sun on October 28, 2003. The monstrous solar storm is one of the largest in recorded history.
Where it is : The sun , around 93 million mile ( 150 million klick ) from Earth
Why it ’s so special : During the skittish season of 2003 , the sun patter out an unusually potent series ofsolar flares , known as the " Halloween solar storms . " The most powerful of these flares ( pictured above ) explode from the Dominicus ’s surface on Oct. 28 and launched a high - speed fit of electrically agitate speck , called acoronal mass ejection(CME ) , that smashed into Earth the next mean solar day .
The monstrous eruption was an 10 - class flare — themost herculean class the Dominicus is capable of producing — with an approximate magnitude of 45 , which remains the most sinewy in modernistic database , according toNASA . ( The flash was too sinewy to be accurately detected by scientific equipment at the time , so its order of magnitude was calculated afterward . )
The plume of plasma erupted from a macula full than 13 Earths , allot to theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA ) . The ensue CME temporarily knock out one-half of the satellites orbiting Earth at the time and forced cosmonaut on theInternational Space Stationto take cover from the radiation .
On Earth , the resulting geomagnetic violent storm raged for three days , make impermanent radio blackout across big parts of the globe and even causing lasting equipment casualty to electrical substructure in some places . Auroras were also clearly seeable as far to the south as California , Texas and Florida , concord to NOAA .
expert say the superpowered tempest could have been the largest since theCarrington Eventin 1859 , which , excluding inexplicably hefty ancientMiyake events , is the most brawny known solar storm in human story .
— quad pic of the week : Hubble spy a spectacular galaxy collapse
— Space photograph of the week : A cosmic ' spook ' match through the universe ’s past
— Space photo of the week : The sun ’s vehement corona like it ’s never been determine before
If a solar tempest as declamatory as the 2003 behemoth hit Earth today , the repercussions could be much more terrifying because there are thousands more satellite in orbit and we are much more reliant on them than we were back then .
All indication suggest that the sun ’s upcoming period of peak activity , the solar utmost , will be the strong in decades .
