NASA's Fermi Detects the Highest-Energy Light From a Solar Flare
During a powerful solar blast on March 7, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray
Space Telescope detected the highest-energy light ever
associated with an eruption on the sun. The discovery heralds
Fermi's new role as a solar observatory, a powerful new tool for
understanding solar outbursts during the sun's maximum period of
activity. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured
dramatic views of the March 7 X5.4 solar flare in extreme
ultraviolet light. The gold images show the sun at a wavelength
of 171 Angstroms, which corresponds to a temperature of 1
million degrees F (600,000 C). Teal images (131 Angstroms) show
features 18 times hotter. The blast triggers waves that traverse
the sun at 1 million mph. (Credit: NASA/SDO; NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center) A solar flare is an explosive blast of
light and charged particles. The powerful March 7 flare, which
earned a classification of X5.4 based on the peak intensity of
its X-rays, is the strongest erup