What the Sun's Most Intense Solar Flare Looks Like

Sun ejected one of its most powerful flares this week.

ByABC News
May 7, 2015, 9:10 AM
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these colorized images of a solar flare on May 5, 2015. Each image shows a different wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights a different temperature of material on the sun.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these colorized images of a solar flare on May 5, 2015. Each image shows a different wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights a different temperature of material on the sun.
SDO/Wiessinger/NASA

— -- This is muy caliente.

The sun let out one of its most intense flares on Cinco de Mayo. NASA captured the striking moment Tuesday in a series of photos showing the brilliant burst of radiation at different wavelengths.

The solar flare, which peaked at 6:11 pm ET, gained an X-class designation from NASA, meaning it is among the most intense flares the sun can emit.

PHOTO: A composite image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a solar flare on the edge of the sun on May 5, 2015 with a graphic representing the Earth shown to scale.
A composite image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a solar flare on the edge of the sun on May 5, 2015 with a graphic representing the Earth shown to scale.

Solar flares can't permeate Earth's atmosphere, but the strongest of the X-class can cause issues for GPS when it passes through the part of the atmosphere where those signals travel.

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