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SDO

Yet Another X-Class Flare From AR 1748

May 14, 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Last night, as Commander Hadfield and the Expedition 35 crew were returning to Earth in their Soyuz spacecraft, the Sun unleashed yet another X-class flare from active region 1748, the third and most powerful eruption yet from the sunspot region in [...]

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The Sun Doesn’t Cause Earthquakes

April 12, 2013

If that title seems like an obvious statement to you, it’s ok… it seems pretty obvious to me too. But there are those who have been suggesting — for quite some time, actually — that earthquakes can be triggered or strengthened by solar activity; that, in fact, exceptionally powerful solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and [...]

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AR1654 is a Monster Sunspot. (And It’s Aiming Our Way.)

January 11, 2013

Active Region 1654 on the Sun’s western limb, seen by SDO on Jan. 11 (NASA/SDO/HMI team. Diagram by J. Major.) Like an enormous cannon that is slowly turning its barrel toward us, the latest giant sunspot region AR1654 is steadily moving into position to face Earth, loaded with plenty of magnetic energy to create M-class [...]

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Sunspot 1520 Fires a Flare

July 12, 2012

Remember that cool animation I posted earlier of AR1520 and how I said there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t unleash an X-class flare? Well at 16:48 UT today, it did. Just goes to show there’s no guarantees in space! The X1.4-class flare will most likely affect Earth’s magnetic field as 1520 is directly facing us. Stay [...]

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A Rare Type of Solar Storm Spotted by Satellite

June 1, 2012

When a moderate-sized M-class flare erupted from the Sun on May 17, it sent out a barrage of high-energy solar particles that belied its initial intensity. These particles traveled at nearly the speed of light, crossing the 93 million miles between the Sun and Earth in a mere 20 minutes and impacting our atmosphere, causing [...]

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