The Sun launches major X-class solar flare toward Earth that could trigger auroras over the weekend

Scientists revealed that the sun recently launched a major X-class solar flare toward Earth, triggering a radio blackout in random parts of the US.

The celestial body also unleashed a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) aimed at our planet and could potentially cause aurora displays later this week. It was reported that the X-class flare — one of the most powerful flares the sun can produce — exploded out of sunspot AR3842 near the sun's solar equator around 6pm on Tuesday, according to LiveScience .

The outlet reported that the flare had a magnitude of X7.1, making it the most powerful flare to emerge from the sun since the start of Solar Cycle 25, the sun's most recent solar cycle which began in May.

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So far, the sun's most powerful flare belongs to one that occurred in May and registered a whopping X8 magnitude. According to the outlet, May's blast was the most powerful flare on record in the last seven years. Radiation from Tuesday's blast reportedly bypassed Earth's magnetosphere and caused large parts of the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, to experience a brief radio blackout. In addition to the radiation the sun also released CME — a cloud of plasma and radiation — which NASA predicts will hit Earth on Saturday triggering a beautiful aurora display, reports SpaceWeather .

2024 has presented the Earth with many awesome displays of solar activity. On Wednesday, thousands of people witnessed the "Ring of Fire" solar eclipse . Viewers in South America, where the eclipse was most visible, got the full effect of the astrological movement at 18:45 (2:45 p.m. EDT), reported Time and Date data . An annular eclipse occurs when the moon, which is at its furthest point in orbit from Earth, obscures everything but a ring-shaped sliver of the sun. "The moon is just not quite big enough to cover the sun,” Carolyn Sumners, an employee at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, said.

Experts have said that an annular eclipse differs from a solar eclipse because the latter occurs when the sun, moon and Earth perfectly align. while the residents of Rapa Nui, known as Easter Island, along with parts of Argentina and Chile got to enjoy the full effect, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Hawaii managed to enjoy a partial solar eclipse.

Last month, many in the U.S. were treated to a supermoon which lit up the night sky. A supermoon occurs when a full moon is at the closest point in its orbit around Earth. When the moon appears at its pedigree, it can appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter. The term was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.

September also played host to an incredibly rare blood moon, which occurs when a harvest moon coincides with a lunar eclipse. The blood-red hue of the moon occurs when the sunlight illuminating the moon's surface passes through the Earth's atmosphere.