This dazzling solar flare was captured by the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission on 30 September 2024.

A solar flare is a tremendous explosion on the Sun that happens when energy stored in ‘twisted’ magnetic fields is suddenly released. In a matter of just a few minutes a solar flare heats material to many millions of degrees and produces bursts of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays.

The radiation from solar flares directly affects Earth’s upper atmosphere and radio communications. This is why it’s so important that we watch and monitor flares to better understand them. This flare was classified as a medium-sized or ‘M-class’ flare, which can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions.

The video uses images taken by Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument. It was made by scientists at the Royal Observatory of Belgium using the JHelioviewer software, which anyone can use to make their own solar flare movies. All EUI data is accessible through the JHelioviewer application.

Never before has a space mission been able to observe solar flares in such high resolution in space and time. The video is sped up. In reality the flare lasted about 15 minutes.

Solar Orbiter’s instruments