What’d you do last weekend? 🌞 On Sun-day (get it?), July 2, 2023, the Sun emitted a strong solar flare. Our ever-watchful Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that can temporarily affect radio communications, power grids, and navigation signals. This doesn’t happen often, though. This solar flare was an X1.0 flare. X-class are the most intense flares, while the number gives more information about its strength. By studying flares and how they affect our planet and nearby space, SDO helps us to better prepare for and mitigate these potential disruptions. NASA works as a research arm of the United States’ space weather effort. We watch the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth. Image Description: The Sun is shown in shades of teal, with brig...