Fortunately, the CME did not hit Earth. After a very quiet period that had some wondering if the Sun was entering a “grand solar minimum,” our star may have woken-up.

On May 29, 2020, a family of sunspots — dark spots that freckle the face of the Sun, representing areas of complex magnetic fields — sported the biggest solar flare since October 2017. Late on August 16, 2020, the Sun released a burst of light and energy known as a solar flare. © 2020 Forbes Media LLC.

The most powerful flare measured with modern methods was in 2003, during the last solar maximum, and it was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. Auroras are produced when magnetic particles from the Sun hit the magnetosphere and are deflected. EDT. Picture: SpaceWeather. While X-class flares cause radio blackouts, SpaceWeatherLive.com reports that today’s M-class flare did cause a minor radio blackout. To this end, a team of scientists led by Ting Li (Chinese Academy of Sciences) recently constructed an extensive catalog of large (M- and X-class) solar flares and associated CMEs observed in 2010–2019 — a time period that spans nearly the entirety of the Sun’s most recent solar activity cycle. Jeff Parsons Tuesday 2 Jun 2020 12:22 pm. Powerful flares are often, but not always, accompanied by a coronal mass ejection.Even the most powerful flares are barely detectable in the total solar irradiance (the "solar constant").. NASA revelation: Mysterious set of footprints found on lunar surface outside of Apollo missions, Climate change shock: US CDC warns of brain-eating amoeba disease moving into US as result of rising temperatures, Asteroid discovery: space rock on extremely close approach photographed by scientist, NASA news: Russia's Rocosmos turns down partnership with agency on space Gateway, NASA to announce Moon-related discovery next week, Climate change discovery: Changing global temperatures may have been the cause of human extinction in the past, Asteroid alert: 6-meter rock passed by Earth in a very close approach, Climate change warning: Scientists say Arctic ocean is "dying" due to rising temperatures, NASA discovery: New study suggests Moon once protected Earth from solar rays, Asteroid news: NASA runs yearly drills for planetary defense in case of possible space rock collisions, Mars mission: Nuclear electric propulsion is potentially the technology needed for space exploration, says experts, Asteroid discovery: NASA discovers proof rivers once existed on Bennu, NASA news: Agency teams up with Nokia to install 4G on the Moon's surface, NASA revelation: Declassified report revealed strange incident during Apollo 10 mission, COVID-19 cure: UVC light destroys 99.9% of coronavirus, according to a study, NASA news: James Webb Space Telescope successfully completes environmental testing, NASA news: Expert warns of China's increasing dominance in future space exploration, NASA satellites capture massive 'Doomsday machine' solar flare, NASA's OSIRIS-REx will land on an asteroid to bring home rocks and dust – if it can avoid Mt. Sign up for daily updates for the most important A more severe side effect of solar flares hitting our magnetosphere would be an overload of electricity in electrical grids due to high currents in the magnetic field. A team based in…. Picture via Youtube video. The Science Behind Life in Space on Netflix’s Series “Away”, A Vicious Circle: Ice Loss Due to Warming Leads to Warming Due to Ice Loss, Aerosol Microdroplets Not Very Effective at Spreading the COVID-19 Virus, Pristine Extraterrestrial Organic Compounds Discovered in “Fireball” Meteorite, Over 80% of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Have Vitamin D Deficiency, Study Finds, Mara Johnson-Groh, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, on "NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Spots Burst of Light and Energy on the Sun: A B-Class Flare", NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Detects Solar Flare Pulses at Sun and Earth, Data From Solar Dynamics Observatory Helps NASA Predict Big Solar Flares, Take an Unprecedented Look Into “Central Engine” Powering a Massive Solar Flare, NASA Captures Image of an M6.5 Class Flare, 10 Amazing Discoveries About the Sun From NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Views a Trio of Solar Flares, Solar Dynamics Observatory Captures Images of Recent M5 Solar Flare, Time Crystals May Be the Next Major Leap in Quantum Network Research, Scientists Discover Design Secrets of Nearly Indestructible Insect That Can Survive Being Run Over by a Car, Investigating California’s Rising and Sinking Coast, Ancient Rocks Reveal New Clues About How Earth Got Its Oxygen, Images Prove NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Collected Overflowing Sample From Asteroid, A Greenhouse Mega-Catastrophe Killed Nearly All Life on Earth – Here’s What Happened, A New Way to Search for Dark Matter Particles Reveals Hidden Materials Properties, Scientists Find That Age Does NOT Contribute to COVID-19 Susceptibility, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.