Astronomers capture first significant X-class solar flare in 2015

Astronomers have recently captured the first significant X-class solar flare on March 11, 2015.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

This flare was classified as an X2.2-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 would be twice as intense as an X1, an X3 would be three times as intense, etc.