There were probably even more flashes, we just didn’t see them all.
For astronomers observing the Sun, February 12 turned out to be a fruitful day: 9 flares of different classes occurred on the surface of the star at once. Turkish astronomer Senol Sanli showed all the flares in one image.
Using footage taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, Sunley created a collage showing all nine flares. Fortunately, they occurred in different regions of the star and did not overlap each other.
Along with the flares, the collage included prominences, clumps of matter that left the surface of the Sun for some time and were held by the magnetic field of the star. Typically, prominences fall back onto the surface of the Sun.
Pay attention to the flash in the lower right part of the image: it caused a geomagnetic storm that covered the Earth. The storm turned out to be quite powerful – 24 hours later its effects are still being felt.
Probably, in the coming months, astronomers will be able to detect more than 9 powerful flares per day on the Sun. The star is approaching the maximum of its 11-year cycle, its activity will only increase.
This is interesting