Sun Unleashes Major Flare

Sun Unleashes Major Flare
A solar flare recorded early on Dec. 5, 2006. (Image credit: NOAA/SEC)

Updated 5:05 p.m. ET

The Sun is just past its low-point in an 11-year cycle of activity. But big eruptions can happen anytime.

"It wasn't on my radar, and it's obviously not on the radar of the headquarter folks either," Madison told SPACE.com.

Another spokesperson, William Jeffs, wrote in an email that one of his scientists told him: "The solar flare was an X-ray solar flare pointed away from Earth and therefore not an issue for ISS. To be an issue it would have to be a large proton solar event pointed to Earth."

"We have no concerns that future flares might pose a threat to spacewalks because they are timed when we have protection from the Earth's magnetic field," said Francis Cucinotta NASA Chief Scientist with the Space Radiation Program Element.

SPACE.com's Ker Than contributed to this story from Houston.

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Robert Roy Britt
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Rob has been producing internet content since the mid-1990s. He was a writer, editor and Director of Site Operations at Space.com starting in 1999. He served as Managing Editor of LiveScience since its launch in 2004. He then oversaw news operations for the Space.com's then-parent company TechMediaNetwork's growing suite of technology, science and business news sites. Prior to joining the company, Rob was an editor at The Star-Ledger in New Jersey. He has a journalism degree from Humboldt State University in California, is an author and also writes for Medium.