No, you’re not seeing double. The Sun flung out two massive flares of radiation from opposite hemispheres at nearly the same exact moment, a sign that our host star is fast approaching a period of peak activity.
In a rare moment captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory on Monday, two sunspots can be seen erupting simultaneously from the northern and southern hemispheres, causing a radio blackout on Earth, SpaceWeather.com first reported.
The intense flow of electromagnetic radiation came from sunspots AR3559 and AR3561, which are approximately 310,000 miles (500,000 kilometres) apart. Their combined powers resulted in a M5.1 magnitude flare, which is halfway to an X flare (the most powerful category of solar flares). It was so strong that the high-energy particles hurled toward Earth caused a 30-minute radio blackout in Indonesia and Australia, according to SpaceWeather.com.
This rare occurrence is known as a sympathetic solar flare, when two eruptions occur almost simultaneously in two different active regions on the Sun. But this is no freak accident; the two flares are physically linked through giant magnetic field loops that interconnect across the Sun.
The pair of solar flares are also indicative of the Sun’s temperament. Our giant ball of hot gas goes through 11-year cycles of fluctuating activity, and we are currently coming up on the solar maximum of solar cycle 25. As we approach peak solar activity in the year 2025, the Sun has been ramping up the number of its sunspots and solar flares.
The past four solar cycles have been relatively calm, but solar cycle 25 is likely to be a doozy, according to experts. A solar cycle 25 prediction panel, co-chaired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, is anticipating a particularly active solar cycle, marked with violent eruptions. Forecasters at NOAA are anticipating minor geomagnetic storms that may have an impact on Earth on January 25-26.