In a Wednesday statement, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed that the Sun unleashed a massive 'X-class' flash on Tuesday. The flare - the strongest solar flare since 2006 - spread from Active Region 1158 in the southern hemisphere of the Sun.

As per NASA, the solar flare has resulted in the streaming down of plasma towards the Earth - a phenomenon which is a usually benign one, but can also be worrying at times. As such, it is being tracked by a sophisticated satellite instrument - the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) - developed by UC San Diego (UCSD).

According to NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which has taken an image of the flare with the help of the SMEI, a large coronal mass ejection associated with the flash is blasting towards Earth at an approximated speed of
560 miles per second.

Moreover, with astronomers in southern China reporting disturbances to radio communications, NASA elaborated: "X-class flares are the most powerful of all solar events that can trigger radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms," which may affect electric grids and telecommunications.

Further noting that such a massive solar flare can set off the wondrous aurora borealis, SMEI designer Bernard Jackson - a research scientist at UCSD's Center for Astrophysics and Space Science - elucidated that the ionized particles in the plasma from the flare "could cause an aurora borealis in the northern latitudes." Jackson also added that the plasma will likely hit Earth's magnetosphere on Thursday.