The Sun in turmoil produced the most powerful solar flare recorded since the large solar storms of September 2017: it happened on Thursday 22 February, at 11.43pm Italian time, when an X6.3 class event occurred, the strongest of the current solar cycle (which began in 2019).
This was announced by the European Space Agency.
The episode was not the only one: between 21 and 22 February, in the space of 23 hours, two other flares also occurred, of class X1.8 and X1.7, always coming from the same gigantic sunspot , indicated with the acronym AR3590.
The solar flares did not produce coronal mass ejections, but their ultraviolet radiation ionized Earth's upper atmosphere, causing shortwave radio blackouts over Hawaii and Australia, Spaceweather.com reported.
However, new surprises could arrive in the next few days.
The AR3590 sunspot could produce new powerful X-class flares and will soon head straight towards Earth.
According to ESA, a possible coronal mass ejection could cause geomagnetic interference.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA