The sun released another powerful stream of energetic particles toward Earth that caused power outages in the United States.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported disturbances across North America on Tuesday around 12:51 p.m. ET.
The solar flare, classified as .
The current came from a sunspot that has been hitting our planet for several days and which, according to NOAA, is the size of the spot that caused the worst solar storm in history.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported communications outages over North and South America around 12:51 p.m. ET.
Space weather physicist Dr Tamitha Skov told DailyMail.com: “As for the Great X Flare, it is the biggest in the cycle so far.
“This should have been our first R4 level radio outage, but it was partially blocked by the sun.
“The region that triggered the flare is now mostly behind the western limb of the sun, so we can’t even see it anymore.”
The current solar cycle began in mid-December 2016.
“We are now in the maximum solar phase,” Skov said.
“It is difficult to say whether or not we have passed the peak of the solar maximum. (I doubt it because I think this cycle will have two peaks, just like the previous cycle.) Time will tell.’
The sunspot causing the chaos in space is AR 3664, which has grown to the size of the one that caused the Carrington Event of 1859, which burned down telegraph stations, cutting off communications around the world.
AR 3664 spun out of sight of Earth on Tuesday, but said goodbye with a final explosion.
The solar flare, rated X8.8, was the strongest ever from this cycle, which began in 2017, with a high radio outage level of Level 3 (R3) on a scale of one to five.
The powerful X-class flare erupted from the sun just over two hours before power outages were reported across the United States.
Subatomic debris of electrons and protons from the eruption could also hit our planet, which would cascade to the surface.
The particles have the ability to disrupt satellite communications, cause radiation hazards to astronauts and interfere with power grids on the ground.
NOAA predicted a 60 percent chance of that happening Tuesday.
The event, called a radiation storm, is driven by a magnetic field that extends from the sun toward our solar system.
As the Sun rotates, the magnetic fields emanating from it bend as they pass through the planets in its orbit, creating a spiral structure known as the Parker spiral.
Charged particles from a solar flare can be caught in these spirals and sent back to Earth – when they would otherwise have missed our planet.
Tuesday’s flare follows days of solar activity that NOAA warns could be the worst solar storm in 165 years.
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