High-energy particles from the solar flare generated by sunspot AR3664 avoided Earth.
In mid-May, to the surprise of many, the northern lights could be seen in Hungary as well. The solar flare it left behind – so powerful that it can be felt even in the ocean at a depth of 2.7 kilometers – was 8.79 times stronger, the strongest in seven years. Recently, however, this too has been transcended, writes A hvg.
The European Space Agency's solar probe, Solar Orbiter, recently measured a solar flare 12 times as powerful, which is not only the most powerful so far in the current solar cycle, but likely unprecedented in the past two decades.
Laura HayesAccording to the ESA scientist, in terms of its strength, it is definitely among the ten most powerful eruptions among the events recorded since 1996. Fortunately, Solar Orbiter was able to record the event:
According to measurements, the eruption reached BepiColombo, the joint satellite of the European Space Agency and the Japanese space agency JAXA, as well as the planet Mercury. All this despite the fact that the two objects are not close to each other at all.
The solar orbiter was close to Venus and was also hit by particles from the Sun, and high-energy particles from the solar flare from sunspot AR3664 also bombarded Mars: NASA's Mars Odyssey rover was unable to use its camera for about an hour.