October is off to a hot start: The sun unleashed a massive X-class solar flare — the “strongest of its kind,” according to Space.com — that has the potential to pummel our planet with a powerful geomagnetic storm this week.
Fortunately, meteorologists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center did not mention any Earth-bound CMEs that were spawned by said flare, Space.com reported.
The supercharged sunburst erupted from sunspot AR3842 on Tuesday evening.
Could this be the Perfect Geo-storm?
The flare was one of two that erupted from sunspot AR3842 fired this week.
The other was an M-class flare — the second most powerful class — on Monday evening.
When this occurs, meteorologists predict it will penetrate the Earth’s magnetic field, triggering a strong “G3-class geomagnetic storm” — the third most powerful category after the G4 and G5.
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