By CHRIS McGOWAN This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. (Image courtesy of NASA, ESA and CSA) Special effects have been used for decades to depict space exploration, from visits to planets and moons to zero gravity and spaceships – one need only think of the landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Since that era, visual effects have increasingly grown in realism and importance. VFX have been used for entertainment and for scientific purposes, outreach to the public and astronaut training in virtual reality. Compelling images and videos can bring data to life. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) produces visualizations, animations and images to help scientists tell stories of their research and make science more approachable and engaging. A.J. Christensen is a senior visualization designer for the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. There, he develops data visualization techniques and designs data-driven imagery for scientific analysis and public outreach using Hollywood visual effects tools, according to NASA. SVS visualizations feature datasets from Earth-and space-based instrumentation, scientific supercomputer models and physical statistical distributions that have been analyzed and processed by computational scientists. Christensen’s specialties include working with 3D volumetric data, using the procedural cinematic software Houdini and science topics in Heliophysics, Geophysics and Astrophysics. He previously worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ Advanced Visualization Lab where he worked on more than a dozen science documentary full-dome films as well as the IMAX films Hubble 3D and A Beautiful Planet – and he worked at DNEG on the movie Interstellar, which won the 2015 Best Visual Effects Academy Award. This global map of CO2 was created by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio using a model called GEOS, short for the Goddard Earth Observing System. GEOS is a high-resolution weather reanalysis model, powered by supercomputers, that is used to represent what was happening in the atmosphere. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) “The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio operates like a small VFX studio that creates animations of scientific data that has been collected or analyzed at NASA. We are one of several groups at NASA that create imagery for public consumption, but we are also a part of the scientific research process, helping scientists understand and share their data through pictures and video.” —A.J. Christensen, Senior Visualization Designer, NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) About his work at NASA SVS, Christensen comments, “The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio operates like a small VFX studio that creates animations of scientific data that has been collected or analyzed at NASA. We are one of several groups at NASA that create imagery for public consumption, but we are also a part of the scientific research process, helping scientists understand and share their data through pictures and video. This past year we were part of NASA’s total eclipse outreach efforts, we participated in all the major earth science and astronomy conferences, we launched a public exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History called the Earth Information Center, and we posted hundreds of new visualizations to our publicly accessible website: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov.” This is the ‘beauty shot version’ of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. The visualization starts with a rotating globe showing ocean currents. The colors used to color the flow in this version were chosen to provide a pleasing look. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) The Gulf Stream and connected currents. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Venus, our nearby “sister” planet, beckons today as a compelling target for exploration that may connect the objects in our own solar system to those discovered around nearby stars. (Image courtesy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) WORKING WITH DATA While Christensen is interpreting the data from active spacecraft and making it usable in different forms, such as for science and outreach, he notes, “It’s not just spacecraft that collect data. NASA maintains or monitors instruments on Earth too – on land, in the oceans and in the air. And to be precise, there are robots wandering around Mars that are collecting data, too.” He continues, “Sometimes the data comes to our team as raw telescope imagery, sometimes we get it as a data product that a scientist has already analyzed and extracted meaning from, and sometimes various sensor data is used to drive computational models and we work with the models’ resulting output.” Jupiter’s moon Europa may have life in a vast ocean beneath its icy surface. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) HOUDINI AND OTHER TOOLS “Data visualization means a lot of different things to different people, but many people on our team interpret it as a form of filmmaking,” Christensen says. “We are very inspired by the approach to visual storytelling that Hollywood uses, and we use tools that are standard for Hollywood VFX. Many professionals in our area – the visualization of 3D scientific data – were previously using other animation tools but have discovered that Houdini is the most capable of understanding and manipulating unusual data, so there has been major movement toward Houdini over the past decade.” Satellite imagery from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the Sun in ultraviolet light colorized in light brown. Seen in ultraviolet light, the dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Christensen explains, “We have always worked with scientific software as well – sometimes there’s only one software tool in existence to interpret a particular kind of scientific data. More often than not, scientific software does not have a GUI, so we’ve had to become proficient at learning new coding environments very quickly. IDL and Python are the generic data manipulation environments we use when something is too complicated or oversized for Houdini, but there are lots of alternatives out there. Typically, we use these tools to get the data into a format that Houdini can interpret, and then we use Houdini to do our shading, lighting and camera design, and seamlessly blend different datasets together.” While cruising around Saturn in early October 2004, Cassini captured a series of images that have been composed into this large global natural color view of Saturn and its rings. This grand mosaic consists of 126 images acquired in a tile-like fashion, covering one end of Saturn’s rings to the other and the entire planet in between. (Image courtesy of ASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) The black hole Gargantua and the surrounding accretion disc from the 2014 movie Interstellar. (Image courtesy of DNEG and Paramount Pictures) Another visualization of the black hole Gargantua. (Image courtesy of DNEG and Paramount Pictures) INTERSTELLAR & GARGANTUA Christensen recalls working for DNEG on Interstellar (2014). “When I first started at DNEG, they asked me to work on the giant waves on Miller’s ocean planet [in the film]. About a week in, my manager took me into the hall and said, ‘I was looking at your reel and saw all this astronomy stuff. We’re working on another sequence with an accretion disk around a black hole that I’m wondering if we should put you on.’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve done lots of accretion disks.’ So, for the rest of my time on the show, I was working on the black hole team.” He adds, “There are a lot of people in my community that would be hesitant to label any big-budget movie sequence as a scientific visualization. The typical assumption is that for a Hollywood movie, no one cares about accuracy as long as it looks good. Guardians of the Galaxy makes it seem like space is positively littered with nebulae, and Star Wars makes it seem like asteroids travel in herds. But the black hole Gargantua in Interstellar is a good case for being called a visualization. The imagery you see in the movie is the direct result of a collaboration with an expert scientist, Dr. Kip Thorne, working with the DNEG research team using the actual Einstein equations that describe the gravity around a black hole.” Thorne is a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist who taught at Caltech for many years. He has reached wide audiences with his books and presentations on black holes, time travel and wormholes on PBS and BBC shows. Christensen comments, “You can make the argument that some of the complexity around what a black hole actually looks like was discarded for the film, and they admit as much in the research paper that was published after the movie came out. But our team at NASA does that same thing. There is no such thing as an objectively ‘true’ scientific image – you always have to make aesthetic decisions around whether the image tells the science story, and often it makes more sense to omit information to clarify what’s important. Ultimately, Gargantua taught a whole lot of people something new about science, and that’s what a good scientific visualization aims to do.” The SVS produces an annual visualization of the Moon’s phase and libration comprising 8,760 hourly renderings of its precise size, orientation and illumination. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) FURTHER CHALLENGES The sheer size of the data often encountered by Christensen and his peers is a challenge. “I’m currently working with a dataset that is 400GB per timestep. It’s so big that I don’t even want to move it from one file server to another. So, then I have to make decisions about which data attributes to keep and which to discard, whether there’s a region of the data that I can cull or downsample, and I have to experiment with data compression schemes that might require me to entirely re-design the pipeline I’m using for Houdini. Of course, if I get rid of too much information, it becomes very resource-intensive to recompute everything, but if I don’t get rid of enough, then my design process becomes agonizingly slow.” SVS also works closely with its NASA partner groups Conceptual Image Lab (CIL) and Goddard Media Studios (GMS) to publish a diverse array of content. Conceptual Image Lab focuses more on the artistic side of things – producing high-fidelity renders using film animation and visual design techniques, according to NASA. Where the SVS primarily focuses on making data-based visualizations, CIL puts more emphasis on conceptual visualizations – producing animations featuring NASA spacecraft, planetary observations and simulations, according to NASA. Goddard Media Studios, on the other hand, is more focused towards public outreach – producing interviews, TV programs and documentaries. GMS continues to be the main producers behind NASA TV, and as such, much of their content is aimed towards the general public. An impact crater on the moon. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Image of Mars showing a partly shadowed Olympus Mons toward the upper left of the image. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Mars. Hellas Basin can be seen in the lower right portion of the image. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Mars slightly tilted to show the Martian North Pole. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Christensen notes, “One of the more unique challenges in this field is one of bringing people from very different backgrounds to agree on a common outcome. I work on teams with scientists, communicators and technologists, and we all have different communities we’re trying to satisfy. For instance, communicators are generally trying to simplify animations so their learning goal is clear, but scientists will insist that we add text and annotations on top of the video to eliminate ambiguity and avoid misinterpretations. Often, the technologist will have to say we can’t zoom in or look at the data in a certain way because it will show the data boundaries or data resolution limits. Every shot is a negotiation, but in trying to compromise, we often push the boundaries of what has been done before, which is exciting.”

A swirling sea of pink, where fluffy tufts float majestically upward, while elsewhere violet plumes rain down from above. This is the Sun as seen in groundbreaking new images — and they're unlike anything you've ever laid eyes on.As detailed in a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists have leveraged new coronal adaptive optics tech to bypass the blurriness caused by the turbulence of the Earth's atmosphere, a time-old obstacle that's frustrated astronomers' attempts to see features on our home star at a resolution better than 620 miles. Now, they've gotten it down to just under 40 miles — a light year sized leap.The result is some of the clearest images to date of the fine structures that make up the Sun's formidable corona, the outermost layer of its atmosphere known for its unbelievable temperatures and violent, unpredictable outbursts.The authors are optimistic that their blur-bypassing techniques will be a game-changer."These are by far the most detailed observations of this kind, showing features not previously observed, and it's not quite clear what they are," coauthor Vasyl Yurchyshyn, a research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Center for Terrestrial Research (CSTR), said in a statement about the work."It is super exciting to build an instrument that shows us the Sun like never before," echoed lead author Dirk Schmidt, an adaptive optics scientist at the US National Solar Observatory.Stretching for millions of miles into space, the corona is the staging ground for the Sun's violent outbursts, which range from solar storms, to solar flares, to coronal mass ejections. One reason scientists are interested in these phenomena is because they continue to batter our own planet's atmosphere, playing a significant role in the Earth's climate and wreaking havoc on our electronics. Then, at a reach totally beyond our very limited human purview, is the corona's mighty solar wind, which sweeps across the entire solar system, shielding it from cosmic rays.But astronomers are still trying to understand how these solar phenomena occur. One abiding mystery is why the corona can reach temperatures in the millions of degrees Fahrenheit, when the Sun's surface it sits thousands of miles above is no more than a relatively cool 10,000 degrees. The conundrum even has a name: the coronal heating problem.The level of detailed captured in the latest images, taken with an adaptive optics system installed on the Goode Solar Telescope at the CSTR, could be transformative in probing these mysteries.One type of feature the unprecedented resolution revealed were solar prominences, which are large, flashy structures that protrude from the sun's surface, found in twisty shapes like arches or loops. A spectacular video shows a solar prominence swirling like a tortured water spout as it's whipped around by the sun's magnetic field.Most awe-inspiring of all are the examples of what's known as coronal rain. Appearing like waterfalls suspended in midair, the phenomenon is caused as plasma cools and condenses into huge globs before crashing down to the sun's surface. These were imaged at a scale smaller than 100 kilometers, or about 62 miles. In solar terms, that's pinpoint accuracy."With coronal adaptive optics now in operation, this marks the beginning of a new era in solar physics, promising many more discoveries in the years and decades to come," said coauthor  Philip R. Goode at the CSTR in a statement.More on our solar system: Scientists Detect Mysterious Object in Deep Solar SystemShare This Article

Photo Credit: Schmidt et al./NJIT/NSO/AURA/NSF New optics show coronal rain and strange plasma features in the sun’s outer atmosphere Highlights Ultr-detailed images reveal fine plasma structures in the sun’s corona Scientists observe a high-speed plasma ‘plasmoid’ racing across the sun Coronal rain threads seen in sharpest detail, just 12 miles in width Advertisement In a landmark achievement for solar astronomy, scientists have unveiled the most detailed view ever of the sun's corona — its superheated outer atmosphere — revealing bizarre, never-before-seen plasma features including delicate “raindrops” and a snaking, high-speed plasma stream. Captured using a cutting-edge adaptive optics system named Cona, installed at the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) in California, the new footage offers unmatched clarity of phenomena long obscured by Earth's turbulent atmosphere. The images, coloured to represent hydrogen-alpha light, show cooler plasma tracing the sun's magnetic fields in mesmerising loops and arcs.Sharpest Solar Views Yet Reveal Coronal Rain, Racing Plasmoid, and Twisting ProminencesAs per researchers at NJIT's Centre for Solar-Terrestrial Research, the adaptive optics allow the 1.6-metre telescope to reach its theoretical resolution limit of 63 kilometres. Among the findings is the sharpest view yet of coronal rain — narrow filaments of plasma falling back to the solar surface along magnetic field lines, some just 20 kilometres wide. Unlike Earth's rain, these plasma threads arc and loop in response to the sun's magnetism. Another striking discovery is the observation of a fast-moving ‘plasmoid' — a stream of plasma racing across the corona at nearly 100 kilometres per second.The footage also captured a rapidly reconfiguring solar prominence—plasma loops anchored to the sun's surface, twisting and dancing under magnetic tension. Scientists believe such observations could illuminate the mechanisms behind coronal mass ejections and solar flares, major drivers of space weather. Researchers note that the sun's surface appears soft and "fluffy" due to short-lived plasma jets called spicules, whose origins remain mysterious.The team's findings were published Tuesday, May 27, in the journal Nature.Study co-author Philip Goode mentioned that "This marks the beginning of a new era in solar astronomy." Researchers now hope to implement similar technology in larger instruments such as the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaiʻi.  For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: sun's corona, plasma stream, coronal rain, solar telescope, space weather, solar prominence Gadgets 360 Staff The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. More

Photo Credit: NOAA A powerful CME from the Sun could disable Earth’s power, satellites, and GPS with little warning Highlights Solar storm magnetic fields stay unknown until they reach Earth Spacecraft offer only 15–60 minutes of warning for incoming solar storms Lack of multi-angle solar data hinders accurate CME forecasting efforts Advertisement Imagine being told a storm is approaching, but you won't know how dangerous it truly is until minutes before impact. That's the reality scientists face with solar storms. Although scientists have improved our ability to monitor coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun and project their arrival at Earth, the most important consideration — the orientation of the storm's magnetic field — remains unknown until the very last minute. This direction, referred to as the Bz component, decides whether the CME will pass by with little influence or cause disturbances to satellites, electricity grids, and GPS systems.Lack of Early Bz Data Leaves Earth Vulnerable to Solar Storms, Scientists Urge Wider Sun CoverageAs per a report on Space.com, solar physicist Valentín Martínez Pillet emphasised that knowing the Bz value earlier could dramatically improve our ability to prepare. Currently, spacecraft like NASA's ACE and DSCOVR detect Bz only when the CME reaches Lagrange Point 1 (L1), giving us just 15 to 60 minutes' warning. Martínez Pillet predicts it could take 50 years to achieve the forecasting precision we have for Earth's weather unless we expand our view of the Sun with new satellites placed at Lagrange points L4, L5, and L3.Despite having the scientific models needed, Martínez Pillet argues we lack vital real-time data from different solar perspectives. Most observations currently come from a single vantage point — L1, which limits our predictive ability. Missions like ESA's upcoming Vigil, scheduled for launch in 2031 to L5, aim to fill this gap by detecting the CME's shape and magnetic orientation from the side, potentially giving up to a week's notice.But decades may be too long to wait. History reminds us of the danger: the 1859 Carrington Event caused telegraph failures, and a near miss in 2012 could have caused trillions in damage if it had struck Earth. In a 2013 paper, Dan Baker of LASP warned that a direct hit would have left the modern world technologically crippled.Today, tools like the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) and DSCOVR offer continuous solar monitoring, but their limitations emphasise the need to provide broader coverage. “The Sun isn't changing,” Martínez Pillet said. “It's our dependence on technology that's made us more vulnerable.” Until we build the infrastructure to see solar storms before they hit, we may remain dangerously exposed. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: solar storms, space weather, CME, solar activity, NOAA, DSCOVR, Bz component, Lagrange points Gadgets 360 Staff The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. More Related Stories

The U.S. Ran Its First Space Weather Preparedness Drill—Here’s How It Went Ironically, the exercise last May was interrupted by a real scenario, when Earth was hit by the strongest solar storm in two decades NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of extreme solar activity on May 10, 2024. NASA SDO In May last year, the United States government hosted its first-ever “Space Weather Tabletop Exercise,” a hypothetical practice test to determine whether the country is prepared for space weather events, such as intense geomagnetic storms. The exercise brought together agencies such as NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Homeland Security to talk through how they would handle such a threat—and the risks it would pose to Earth. “Minimizing the impacts of such storms requires close coordination, and this meeting was their chance to practice,” reads a NASA statement. The outcome of the test? State and federal agencies found out they need all the practice they can get. “Overall, the exercise demonstrated the need for better coordination to produce meaningful [space weather] notifications that describe the potential impacts to critical infrastructure,” reads the post-exercise report, “as well as emphasized the importance of the whole-of-government planning approach for significant [space weather] events.” Geomagnetic storms are strong disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field, and they can result from solar storms: explosions of material including energy, particles and magnetic fields from the sun’s surface, which can include solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Geomagnetic storms can wreck satellites, trigger radio blackouts and power outages and endanger astronauts by exposing them to intense radiation, according to the statement. Extreme geomagnetic storms only occur every few decades, per Live Science’s Tereza Pultarova. But our society has become so dependent on vulnerable technologies that the impact of space weather today could be significant. On May 8 and 9, 2024, participants at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland and the Federal Emergency Management Agency office in Colorado pretended it was January 2028, and they had to work through hypothetical scenarios involving harmful solar activity. At the beginning of the exercise, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center notified participants that an active region on the sun had rotated to a point that, if it exploded, it could impact Earth. To make matters worse, two NASA astronauts were in a spacecraft orbiting the moon, with two of their colleagues currently on the lunar surface. The scenario quickly introduced harmful solar activity. Hypothetical effects included satellites, astronauts and airplanes exposed to intense radiation; disrupted or blocked radio communication and GPS systems; degraded communication with orbiting satellites and widespread power outages. One issue the report highlights is that space weather forecasters have very little time to determine the potential impact of the sun’s coronal mass ejections (CMEs). They can’t measure the CME until it passes satellites at the first Lagrange point, a gravitationally stable location that’s about 930,000 miles from Earth. “We never know … what the CME is composed of and what to make of it until it gets just one million miles from Earth, where it’s only 15 to 45 minutes away,” Shawn Dahl, senior space weather forecaster at the Space Weather Prediction Center, told Gizmodo’s Passant Rabie in August. “That’s when we can see what the CME is composed of. How strong is it magnetically? What’s the speed of its movement? Is it going to connect with Earth?” According to the NASA statement, the exercise demonstrated “a critical need” for “more robust forecasting capabilities of space weather drivers and effects.” The report also emphasizes the need to educate the public, continue developing response plans, make critical infrastructure less vulnerable and collaborate with both the private sector and international agencies. What Happened During the Biggest Geomagnetic Storm in More than 20 Years Watch on Notably, the hypothetical exercise last year was interrupted by a real one, when Earth was hit by the most severe solar storm in more than 20 years, now named the Gannon storm. That staggering event, which first struck our planet on May 10, 2024, provided a real-world example for scientists to study. “These extraordinary events required key participants to simultaneously manage both simulated actions of the [exercise] and the real-world needs of the nation,” according to a statement from NOAA. The storm tripped high-voltage lines, overheated transformers, interfered with GPS-guided farm equipment and re-routed flights over the Atlantic Ocean. The atmosphere expanded from heat, reaching a whopping 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit (compared to the standard high of 1,200 degrees), and that led to increased drag on satellites. It super-charged the magnetosphere with the largest electric current seen in 20 years, and it temporarily restructured the planet’s ionosphere. Participants reported that running through the hypothetical scenario generated important conversations and improved communication across agencies. Still, it remains to be seen how prepared we’ll be next time an angry solar region turns our way. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Photo Credit: NASA / SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, helioviewer.org Solar filament erupts as dark ribbon from sun’s upper right Highlights A massive 600,000-mile-long solar filament erupts from the sun’s surface Fiery filament blast triggers a stunning coronal mass ejection into space “Angel-wing” eruption mesmerizes skywatchers with its vast visual scale Advertisement A stunning solar eruption captured on video on the night of May 12-13 has revealed a 600,000-mile-long filament blasting away from the sun's northern hemisphere. The outburst occurred around 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) and spanned a distance more than twice that between Earth and the moon. A massive solar filament suspended above the sun's surface became unstable and erupted, blasting a CME into space along with a cloud of plasma and magnetic energy. Preliminary models show Earth is nowhere in the firing range of this fiery ejection, but researchers are still watching the phenomenon closely.Sun's 600,000-Mile-Long ‘Angel-Wing' Eruption Stuns Skywatchers, Signals Rising Solar ActivityAs per the Space.com report, the eruption originated from a filament structure composed of dense, cooler solar plasma held aloft by magnetic fields. These structures often appear as dark ribbons across the sun's disk and can become unstable without warning. Solar observers noted that this latest eruption dwarfed similar recent events, both in scale and intensity. Aurora chaser Jure Atanackov remarked that the CME from the blast was among the most spectacular seen this year, although fortunately, it is headed north and will miss Earth.The event, dubbed the “angel-wing” or “bird-wing” eruption by observers online, was widely shared among solar watchers. Vincent Ledvina, another aurora chaser, noted its incredible visual impact, describing it as a sight worth watching on loop. The eruption is, in fact, so long, by more than a million kilometres, that it is of scientific interest and visually striking as well. Geomagnetic storms resulting from this kind of CME can affect satellites, communication systems, and even Earth.Although it foreshadows the unpredictable nature of our host star, this particular CME does not pose a threat to Earth at the moment. Solar activity is ramping up as we approach the peak of Solar Cycle 25 in 2025. What's more, more — and maybe more Earth-threatening — solar explosions could follow.As a reminder of the formidable and delicate forces at play relatively close by on Earth, the sun remains a source of wonder for astronomers and skywatchers alike. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: sun eruption, solar filament, coronal mass ejection, CME, solar flare, sun activity, space weather, astronomy Gadgets 360 Staff The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. More

Sun Launches Its Strongest Solar Flare of the Year So Far, Causing Radio Blackouts Around the World The new sunspot responsible for this powerful blast is rotating into view, which could bring more solar activity—and potential aurora-causing coronal mass ejections—to Earth in the coming days The sun launched a powerful solar flare on May 14, 2025, captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. NASA / SDO The sun has had quite a busy week hurling solar flares at our planet, causing blackouts across the globe. “After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again,” reports Spaceweather.com. This is not totally unexpected, as scientists announced in the fall that the sun has reached the peak of its natural, 11-year cycle of activity, a high level known as the solar maximum. During this phase, the sun has more sunspots—dark, cool regions with tangled-up magnetic fields that can erupt material out into space. The recent flares came from a pair of sunspots, including a new one that emerged earlier this week. Called AR4087, the spot is not completely aligned with Earth, but it’s currently turning toward our planet. “If the explosions continue for a few more days, however, Earth will find itself squarely in the strike zone,” with the potential for aurora-causing coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to arrive, writes Spaceweather.com. Solar flares are bursts on the sun’s surface that send electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV), hurtling through space—and sometimes, they’re pointed at Earth. These forms of energy can ionize, or charge, low layers of the planet’s ionosphere on the sun-facing side. That can affect high frequency radio waves used for long-distance communication, because they bounce off the ionosphere’s upper layers to get around the globe. When the lower layers are ionized, however, these waves lose energy or become completely absorbed, causing radio blackouts. A solar flare’s intensity is classified as either A, B, C, M or X, with X being the most powerful and each letter representing an increase in strength by a factor of ten. Radio blackout intensities are ranked on a scale from R1 to R5, with R1 corresponding to an M1 flare and R5 corresponding to X20, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On Tuesday, a sunspot named AR4086 shot out an X1.2 solar flare. The very next day, the new sunspot AR4087 followed up with an M5.3 flare before a significantly stronger X2.7 flare—then topped it all off with another M7.7 flare, as reported by Live Science’s Jess Thomson. The AR4087 explosion caused “strong” R3 radio blackouts in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, per Space.com’s Daisy Dobrijevic.Specifically, the X2.7 flare—the strongest so far this year—took place while the sun was over the Middle East and interrupted high frequency radio signals in the area for around ten minutes, explains Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, to NBC News’ Denise Chow. “Other than the likelihood of [high-frequency] communication degradation due to some shortwave fade issues, we are unaware of any other likely or possible impacts,” Dahl says in a written statement to NBC News. However, as sunspot AR4087 rotates to face Earth head-on, we might be in for more solar activity. The powerful X2.7 flare also came with a CME, a burst of plasma and magnetic fields that can supercharge auroras. But rather than being pointed at Earth, that CME was launched at Mars, and it could cause auroras on the red planet this Sunday, per Live Science. “This is getting intense, especially as this active region turns closer into view,” Vincent Ledvina, an aurora chaser and photographer in Alaska, wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. “What does this AR have planned over the next days… we’ll have to wait and see.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.