X8-class Solar Flare Detected | NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

X8-class Solar Flare Detected | NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

This image is an extreme ultraviolet view of the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It shows the bright flash of a X8-class solar flare on the Sun’s upper left side. The rest of the surface is mottled with darker and lighter regions, and faint loops of solar material can be seen extending off the Sun’s edges.

The Sun emitted a strong X8-class solar flare on February 1, 2026 at 23:57 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) watches the Sun constantly and captured images of the event.

Giant sunspot 4366 is a solar flare 'factory'. In the past 24 hours, it has produced 23 M-class solar flares and 4 X-class flares. The most intense so far was yesterday's X8-class flare, shown here in this animated Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere. This, in turn, caused a shortwave radio blackout across the South Pacific Ham radio operators in Australia and New Zealand may have experienced loss of signal below 30 MHz for hours after the flare's peak.

Update: The  European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) SOHO and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coronagraph images confirm that several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) emerged from yesterday's collection of flares. None of them appears to be either potent or squarely Earth-directed. Glancing blows expected on February 4-6 could spark G1 (Minor) to G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storms.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

This flare is classified as an X1.9 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. 

NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.

Image Credits: NASA/SDO, NOAA

Text Credits: Spaceweather[dot]com, NOAA
Capture Date: Feb. 1, 2026

Release Date: Feb. 2, 2026

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