At 1:46 p.m. on Wednesday, the turbulent sun unleashed a powerful solar flare aimed at the Earth.

Space weather observatories orbiting the Earth such as NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare, which was classified as an X1.6, a powerful rating.

The large flare, which was ejected from a region of the sun facing the Earth, affected radio communications in the upper atmosphere, but the extent of the disruption was small.

Like Us on Facebook

"Impacts to HF (high frequency) radio communications on the daylight side of Earth lasted for a little more than an hour," said the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center in a bulletin.

If radiation from a X-class flare reaches the planet's ionosphere, extreme-ultraviolet light and X-rays could significantly affect radio waves used for communication.

On the other hand, the biosphere, the region of the planet that supports life, is mostly unaffected because the flare's energy is absorbed by the atmosphere.

Officials from NASA said the astronauts at the International Space Station were not at risk from solar radiation emitted by the flare.

Solar flares, large energy emissions from the sun, are classified by the letters A, B, C, M and X.

The A and B class of flares are the lowest class of flares are very common and uninteresting.

The C category of the solar phenomena consist of small flares that have almost no effect on the Earth. Flares that persist for a long period of time might produce a Coronal Mass Ejection, or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields rising above the sun's corona and into space.

The M flares, which are also called medium large flares, can cause small to moderate blackouts on the radio on the side of the Earth facing the sun.

Meanwhile, X class flares are the largest and most robust of them all, able to black out all the radios facing the sun. When accompanied by CMEs, the huge flares cause strong magnetic storms.

TagsSun, Solar Flare, X-Ray, Flare, Science, Astronomy, radiation, Sunlight, Light, Radio