Pictures: NASA captures most intense solar flare since 2008

Washington : NASA has captured the most intense solar flare since the start of sun cycle in December 2008.

The radiation flares can disrupt communication satellites, GPS, and power grids by reaching outside the atmosphere of the Earth.

According to the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), these so-called category X eruptions disrupted high-frequency radio communications for one hour on the Earth's side facing the sun and low-frequency communications used in navigation. 

A total of two eruptions were registered in the active region of the sun.

Solar cycles last on average eleven years. At the end of the active phase, these eruptions become increasingly rare but still can be powerful.

Picture Credit: Business Standard

What is a solar storm and how they are formed?

Solar storms result from an accumulation of magnetic energy in some places.

These jets of ionized matter are projected -- at high speed into and beyond the crown of the sun -- hundreds of thousands of kilometers outward.