The massive shimmering ball of plasma at the heart of our solar system (aka the sun) let loose a solar flare on Thursday, and NASA's sun-observing Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the moment.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) "space weather scale" has this solar flare event at the second-lowest measure.
A "moderate" radio blackout event, which is what this was with its M5 classification, has the potential to black out high-frequency radio communications "for tens of minutes" on Earth's sunlit side after solar flare occurs.