NASA reported that on Thursday, February 22, the Sun emitted a remarkably powerful solar flare, registering as an X6.3 on the scale. The classification X denotes the utmost intensity of flares, with higher numbers indicating greater strength. This event marked the third solar flare within 24 hours, occurring as the Sun moves towards its solar maximum phase. It is being seen as the strongest in the Solar Cycle 25.

A grand solar minimum can occur when the “solar magnetism diminishes, sunspots appear infrequently, and less ultraviolet radiation reaches Earth,” according to NASA.                     

                 The sun is a stormy brew of electrically charged gases that generates a magnetic field on a roughly 11-year cycle. The 11-year sunspot cycles are caused by the sun’s rotation in space, according to NASA. As the star rotates roughly once every 27 days, its material acts like a fluid, so that its equator rotates much faster than its poles do. Sunspots and solar flares rise and fall every 11 years, a cycle associated with regular reversal of the star’s magnetic field.

WHAT ARE SOLAR FLARES