The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on May 3, 2022, peaking at 9:25 a.m. EDT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

This flare is classified as an X-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. More info on how flares are classified can be found here.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the bottom left portion of the image – on May 3, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in yellow. Credit: NASA SDO

Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center