Big Pic: A Bright Flash From The Sun At 8:30 p.m. Eastern time yesterday a solar flare peaked on the surface of the sun emitting an intense burst of radiation. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the M9.4-class event at a wavelength of 131 Angstroms in order to see the bright flash of heat giving the image its teal hue.M-class flares can cause some space weather effects on Earth like disrupting radio signals. Anything more intense than an M9.9 flare becomes an X-class the highest category. The sun is currently undergoing a solar maximum a peak of activity that occurs about every 11 years making solar flares like this more likely. Not so good for satellite communications but great for desktop backgrounds. �[NASA]