Early Sunday (Dec. 29), the sun fired off a class X1.1 solar flare, one of the most powerful types of solar explosions possible, in what may be its last major flare of 2024. The solar flare erupted from the northwest region of the Earth-facing side of the sun at 2:18 a.m. EST (0718 GMT) and spawned a strong radio blackout on parts of Earth, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) wrote in an update Sunday.
