Christmas Light from the Sun – Solar Flare

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which constantly monitors the Sun, captured this image on December 19. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. While the harmful radiation cannot penetrate Earth's atmosphere and reach humans, if intense enough, it can cause fluctuations in the atmospheric layer where GPS and communication frequencies are located.

The large explosion, visible in the lower right corner in a bluish hue, was categorized as a Class X1.8 solar flare. Class X represents the most intense explosions, and the numbers indicate the explosion's power. X2 is twice the intensity of X1, while X3 is three times the intensity of X1.