
View larger. | Image credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center
This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a mid-level solar flare – an M6.5 – that erupted from the sun on April 2, 2014, peaking at 10:05 a.m. EDT. The images shows the flare in a blend of two wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light: 131 Angstroms and 171 Angstroms, colorized in yellow and red, respectively.
Solar flares are short-lived but powerful bursts of radiation. They are our solar system’s largest explosive events, lasting minutes to hours on the sun’s surface.