Sunday, December 29, 2024

Christmas solar flares erupt from the sun. Will they trigger aurora ‘fireworks’ as we close out 2024?

AstronomyChristmas solar flares erupt from the sun. Will they trigger aurora 'fireworks' as we close out 2024?



In the final hours of Christmas Day, the sun fired off four solar flares within less than three hours.

The biggest flare of the series, recorded at a M7.3, erupted from sunspot region AR3938 on Dec. 25 at 10:15 p,m. EST (0315 GMT on Dec. 26). Solar flares are ranked and categorized by their power on a 4-level classification scale, with M-class the second strongest to the beastly X-class at the top.

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