Missed Valentine's Day? There's a single star in your area ☀️⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ Always one to gravitate around, our Sun’s magnetic presence is felt throughout the solar system. The Sun’s magnetic fields are carried by solar winds – electrically charged gas emanating from the Sun in all directions. The Sun may appear featureless, but our star has occasional flares for the dramatic, cycling between periods of high and low activity. This changes the consistency of solar flares, sunspots, and coronal mass ejections.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ Currently ramping up toward the peak of solar activity – called solar maximum – our Sun emitted an X1.1 flare at 10:48 a.m. EDT (1548 UTC) on Feb. 11. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. Our Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) helps monitor the Sun constantly, allowing scientists the ability to study how the Sun’s activity affects our planet and the surrounding space.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ Image description: An image taken ...