Scientists have recorded an explosion on the Sun that occurred in a sunspot called AR3354, whose diameter is 7 times the size of the Earth and is about 89 thousand km.
This is reported Space.
This phenomenon was recorded on the evening of July 2 at 22:14 Jerusalem time using the SDO spacecraft. We are talking about the most powerful of all existing solar flares, which is an X1.1 class flare. It was called the most powerful in 20 years of observation.
After this happened on the territory of the giant sunspot AR3354, the energy flow reached our planet after only 10 minutes. This radiation hit the atmosphere of our planet, which led to the ionization of its upper layer.
As a result, in the western part of North America and parts of the Pacific Ocean, shortwave communications were switched off for an extended period of time. Researchers from NASA said that the connection disappeared for about half an hour – one of the record numbers for such an event.
This is the 18th class X flare in the 25th solar cycle, which began in 2019. During the past 11-year solar cycle of flares of similar power, scientists recorded only 14 such phenomena.
New studies point to much more activity in the current solar cycle in terms of both the total number of flares and X-class flares in general.
Experts noted that such flares often accompany plasma ejections or coronal mass ejections. With the help of the SDO apparatus, it was not possible to fix such an ejection, but there is a version that such prolonged flashes cannot do without a plasma ejection.
The latter could go unnoticed, and scientists can learn about it only when it reaches our planet. If the eruption did occur, then already on July 5 or 6, the plasma will reach the Earth and cause a geomagnetic storm.
Earlier, Cursor reported that British scientists had uncovered the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
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2023-07-04 18:02:03
