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A solar flare which occurred in a huge sunspot group, as captured by the Solar Observation Satellite “HINODE.” These sunspots appeared in the latter half of October 2014 and their size, large enough to be seen with the naked eye, became a topic of conversation. A solar flare is an explosive phenomenon on the solar surface. When a flare occurs, vast quantities of x-rays and high energy particles are generated, some of which fly to the Earth. The strength of solar flares is usually ranked using 5 classes. This is a picture of an X-class flare, which is the strongest class.

太陽観測衛星「ひので」が捉えた超巨大黒点群で起きた太陽フレアです。この黒点は、2014年10月下旬に現われ、肉眼でも見える大きさと話題になったものです。太陽フレアは太陽面上の爆発現象で、フレアが起きると、多量のX線や高エネルギー粒子が発生し、その一部は地球にも飛来します。太陽フレアの規模は5段階で表現されることが多いですが、最大規模を示すXクラスのフレアが発生した際の画像です。