The sun produced a huge solar flare over the Easter holiday weekend, triggering radio blackouts over southeast Asia and Australia, experts said.
The Easter solar eruption peaked at 11:34 p.m. EDT on Sunday (0334 GMT on April 17), according to the United States Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), and was followed shortly after by a coronal mass ejection (CME).
A CME is a jet of plasma and highly magnetized particles that can contain up to a billion tons of matter.
“An X1 flare was observed at 17/0334 UTC from newly numbered Region 2994 (N14E75),” the agency said in an update. “This R3 (Strong) event had an associated Type II radio sweep and 10 cm radio burst.”
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