The sun unleased a powerful solar flare late Monday (Oct. 22),
releasing waves of radiation into space that have already caused a short
radio blackout on Earth.
The flare erupted from the sunspot AR 11598 (short
for Active Region 11598), and reached peak brightness at 11:22 p.m. EDT
(0322 GMT this morning, Oct. 23), according to scientists working on
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a space telescope that
constantly monitors the sun with high-definition cameras. It ranked as
an X1.8 solar flare,
one of the strongest types of solar flares, according to the U.S. Space
Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) run by NOAA and the National Weather
Service.
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