An unstable magnetic filament near the sun's surface, loaded with cool plasma, triggered the fireworks show of dark blobs and streamers, according to NASA.
The flare was run-of-the-mill for the sun in terms of overall energy—solar physicists spotted 70 similarly bright flashes in 2010. Yet unlike its fiery brethren, the recent flare unleashed four exagrams of ionized gas—a mass comparable to the amount of Earth's total coal reserves—in a blast about as big as ten Earths.
The sun's magnetic fields sucked some of the material back into the solar surface, but the rest launched into space as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The event ranked in the top 5 percent of the biggest CMEs ever documented, scientists say.
"This one was off to the side and barely missed us. If it faced earthward, we could have seen some significant space-weather effects," said Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"These large blobs of gas scoop up material during their trip away from the sun and create shock waves ... of high-speed energetic particles. They can be extremely dangerous for astronauts and satellites."
To read the rest of the article, click here.