The Sun jumped the gun on July 4 celebrations, as an enormous photo voltaic flare erupted on the morning of July 3. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the outburst.

The flare was an X1.5-class flare. X-class flares are the most important the Sun emits, forward of A-, B-, C-, and M-class flares. X-class flares are 10 occasions extra energetic than M-class flares, the following one down on the pecking order, and are the most important explosions in our photo voltaic system (all respect to the great San Diego fireworks debacle of 2012). The X1.5 moniker signifies that the flare sat squarely between an X1 and X2 flare in its depth.

At their most delicate, photo voltaic flares are invisible to us on Earth, simply a part of the Sun’s common chatter of exercise. But once they’re extra intense—when the Sun’s magnetic fields converge, for instance—big loops of coronal mass ejection many occasions the scale of Earth can sure off the star’s floor. When directed at us, these flares can mess with our satellites and communications techniques, even these positioned on the bottom. There’s even proof {that a} photo voltaic storm through the Vietnam War prompted dozens of sea mines to explode.

None of that may be a concern with the latest flare, although, which was recorded by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly telescope on a channel that captures areas of the Sun’s corona, or floor. Swaths of the corona are round 10 million levels Fahrenheit. Still, the comparatively puny fireworks in your neighborhood possible pose a larger risk than any outbursts from the Sun.

More: Solar Orbiter Spots Previously Unknown ‘Campfires’ on the Sun

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