This close-up image of the Sun was taken on July 12 at 12:56 pm,
during a powerful X1.4-class solar flare. A solar flare is a
flash of high-energy light. It is created when magnetic fields
on the surface of the Sun slam together, releasing vast amounts
of energy. The ultraviolet and X-ray light created by a flare
does not penetrate the Earth's atmosphere, and cannot be seen by
human eyes anyway. A visitor looking through any of the safe
solar telescopes at the Observatory would not see the light of a
flare. However, the light of a flare heats up the gas around it,
which we can see. The July 12 flare happened in the massive
sunspot group 1520, visible as a cluster of dark spots. A plage
is a cloud of gas above a sunspot region, often glowing brightly
in red light. The flare heated up the plages around the
sunspots. The plages are what we see glowing brilliantly in this
image. While a flare poses no direct threat to life on Earth, it
can increase radiation for astronauts. When the light of the
flare is absorbed