A rare phenomenon was captured on April 23 by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. The structure observing the Sun was able to record a huge explosion occurring simultaneously in four regions of the star.

Solar flares are a frequent phenomenon, especially now, when the Sun is near its peak activity. During this phase of the Schwabe cycle, or more commonly known as the solar cycle, sunspots and coronal ejections are regular, which at best can only cause spectacular auroras, but in the worst cases can also cause communication disturbances.

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According to the US National Weather Service, sunspots are areas where the magnetic field is about 2,500 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field, and much higher than anywhere else on the sun. This causes the magnetic pressure to increase while the atmospheric pressure decreases, which in turn causes the temperature of the area to decrease relative to its surroundings. However, due to the strong magnetic field, the hot gas cannot flow upward from the core.

This process leads to large explosions on the surface of the sun. It is rare for several explosions to occur at the same time, and these explosions are called sympathetic solar flares. For a long time, researchers believed that the simultaneous explosions were the result of chance alone, but a statistical analysis conducted in 2002 showed that they were not: magnetic rings linked these events.

In very rare cases, there can be more than two such explosions at the same time, these are called supersympathetic solar flares. One of these cases was recorded by a NASA probe, and three plus one areas were affected.

A rare, super-sympathetic solar flare

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The particles were able to reach Earth on Friday, and there were no reports of major disturbances.

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