NASA's SDO captures biggest solar flare of the decade: 7 things to know

The biggest solar flare of the decade was recorded by NASA on September 6, 2017.

Here's all you need to know about this latest discovery:

1. This massive solar flare was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) at 8:02 am EDT (5:32 pm IST), when the flare had peaked and resulted in a radio communication blackout on Earth. Another X-class flare was spat out by the Sun at 5:10 am EDT (2:40 pm IST), which was a comparatively smaller emission.

2. This is the biggest flare recorded since September 2005, when a huge an X17 flare was emitted by the Sun. The X-class solar flares are the most powerful flares. An X2 flare is twice as much intense as an X1 flare.

3. The first flare which was recorded on September 6 was an X2.2, and the latter one was an X9.3. So far the largest solar flare to erupt from the sun was in April 2001, and was classified as an X20.

4. The SDO was launched in 2010 with the objective of observing the solar surface. The SDO satellite is a part of the Living With a Star (LWS) programme, which is aimed at raising and grasping more scientific data and addressing phenomena linked to the Sun-Earth system that can directly affect life forms on Earth.

5. "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," a NASA statement said.

6. The strong geomagnetic storm warning issued by NASA was, as of September 7, still in effect and would continue over the next few days. This is in anticipation of the arrival of the coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the X9.3 flare. "Analysis indicates likely CME arrival late on September 8 into early September 9," the space agency said.

7. In case of most intense solar flares, phenomena like solar flares and CMEs occur together. These are formed when the magnetic field present in the Sun's interior gets deformed, resulting in release of a huge amount of energy into the cosmos. A failure of telegraph systems was observed through Europe and North America in 1859 because of a massive solar storm. If a similar storm takes place today; the damage caused by it could be almost worth $2 trillion.