Photos: Huge Solar Flare Eruptions of 2012

X-class Solar Flare March 7, 2012

NASA's SDO spacecraft caught this image of another X-class solar flare on March 7, 2012. SDO researchers reported on their website: "At 00:28 UTC this morning we saw another X-class flare from active region 11429." This picture shows the two ribbons of this X5.4 flare in 1600 angstrom light.

X-class Flare in 1700, March 7, 2012

NASA's SDO spacecraft caught this image of another X-class solar flare on March 7, 2012. SDO researchers reported on their website: "At 00:28 UTC this morning we saw another X-class flare from active region 11429." This picture shows the two ribbons of this X5.4 flare in 1700 angstrom light (ultraviolet).

AR1429 Sunspot Region March 7, 2012

Skywatcher Kenneth Farmer took this photo of the sun showing AR1429 sunspot region on March 7, 2012. He says: "I live in San Francisco and took this photo yesterday through a telescope (with a solar filter) of the AR1429 sunspot region. This is the area that generated the massive solar flare."

Mid-Level Flare, Nov. 13, 2012

By observing the sun in a number of different wavelengths, NASA's telescopes can tease out different aspects of events on the sun. These three images of a solar flare on Nov. 13, 2012, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), show from left to right: light in the 304 Ångstrom wavelength, which shows light from the region of the sun's atmosphere where flares originate; light from the sun in the 193 Ångstrom wavelength, which shows the hotter material of a solar flare; and light in 335 Ångstroms, which highlights light from active regions in the corona.

M6 Solar Flare on Nov. 12, 2012

Visible in the lower left corner, the sun emitted an M6 solar flare on Nov. 12, 2012, which peaked at 9:04 p.m. EST. This image is a blend of two images captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), one showing the sun in the 304 Angstrom wavelength and one in the 193 Angstrom wavelength.