The largest solar flare since 2017 appeared on New Year's Day as the chimes struck
On New Year's Eve, almost simultaneously with the striking of the chimes, the largest solar flare since 2017 occurred. The registration of the record was reported on website Laboratory of solar astronomy IKI RAS and ISTP SB RAS.
In world catalogs, which are maintained according to London time, the outbreak was dated to 2023, although in most of Russia it was recorded already in 2024. The explosion occurred in a certain area due to the fact that magnetic and electrical energy accumulated in the corona of the star due to the movement of sunspots.
“Just yesterday this area was on the far side of the Sun, and only today it appeared in the Earth’s field of view. For this reason, such a powerful explosion was completely unexpected, since it was previously impossible to observe the processes occurring here. It is possible that before reaching the visible side, the region had already produced several large explosions on the reverse side, which remained hidden from earthly instruments,” the laboratory suggested. If the guess turns out to be correct, then the series of explosions may continue, and the inhabitants of the Earth will see them in the first days of January.
It is noted that the flare can be called an “event of exceptional power”, since its power in the current solar cycle is twice as powerful as previous records. She was previously assigned a score of X5.0 (the previous record, recorded on December 14, 2023, was X2.8).
Scientists emphasized that the influence of this phenomenon on our planet is completely excluded, since it happened at a great distance from the Sun-Earth line, on the eastern edge of the star. “The main impact was the streams of high-power hard X-rays that had already reached the Earth and were absorbed by the upper layers of the atmosphere. No other impacts are expected, and the previously issued favorable geomagnetic forecast for the entire period of the New Year holidays remains in force,” they promised.
On the night of December 28, a rare optical phenomenon could be observed – a lunar halo. The moon was surrounded by a “dome” of sunlight, and pillars of light formed in the sky – all this arose when light was reflected from tiny ice particles in the air.
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