NASA On Air: NASA Spacecraft Observes Solar Flare (3/13/2014)
LEAD: What is a X-class solar flare? It is one of the most intense categories of massive bursts of light from the sun.
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This flare erupted on Tuesday, January 7, 2014.
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For scale, the dark-colored sun spot is huge...about twice the size of Earth.
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NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) spacecraft, launched in 2010, studies the sun’s magnetic fields.
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Flares are related to the reconnection, or short-circuiting, of magnetic loops
TAG: Though not a threat to humans, SOME solar flares can disrupt GPS and communication signals.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Producer
- Howard Joe Witte (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Project support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Release date
This page was originally published on Thursday, March 13, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.