Radiation burst in year's first big solar flare

A solar flare erupts on the right side of the sun yesterday morning. Photo / Nasa

The sun was relatively quiet at the end of 2014, at least in comparison to some of the powerful solar storms seen earlier in the year.

But it only took a couple of weeks of 2015 for the star to send out some crazy streams of radiation.

Images from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the sun's peak activity at 6.14am yesterday.

During a solar flare, dark spots of high magnetic energy shoot off from the star, sending radiation into space - and sometimes towards us.

In some cases, solar flares - also known as solar storms - can cause planet-wide radio blackouts here on Earth.

No, you didn't sleep through a major halt in radio communications. Monday's solar activity was only an M-class flare - solidly in the middle of flare classification, based on X-ray brightness.

C-class flares are hardly noticeable on Earth, and M-class flares typically only cause brief interruptions in radio waves, and even then only in polar regions.

It's an X-class flare that can really make itself known.