The Sun repeated the 21st-century record: 29 flares in a day and three new class M flares

On November 8, 2026, three strong class M flares were recorded on the Sun against the backdrop of an ongoing G1-level geomagnetic storm. The day before, on November 7, the star produced 29 flares in a single day — the same number had been registered only twice since the beginning of the 21st century.

Otabek YusupovFirst published on tafs uz 9 November 2026 at 03:102 min read

The key facts

On November 8, three class M flares were registered: M1.7, M1.2 and M1.1
On November 7, the Sun repeated the 21st-century record — 29 flares in a single day
A weak G1-level geomagnetic storm (Kp5+) continues on Earth

Three flares in a single day

On November 8, three strong class M flares occurred on the Sun — the second most powerful category. According to the Fedorov Institute of Applied Geophysics, the first flare, with a magnitude of M1.7, began at 10:46 Moscow time and lasted 29 minutes, the second (M1.2) at 18:37 Moscow time (25 minutes), and the third (M1.1) at 21:27 Moscow time (20 minutes). Gazeta.Ru clarifies, citing the institute,that all three flares occurred in sunspot group 4566.

A record the day before

The star's activity increased noticeably as early as November 7: over the course of a day, scientists counted 29 flares. The same number had been recorded in a single day only twice since the beginning of the 21st century — in May 2022 and December 2024, meaning the Sun has repeated the record of the era. Class M flares can cause radio communication disruptions, and ejections of solar plasma, under certain conditions, lead to geomagnetic storms on Earth.

Geomagnetic storm and auroras

Geomagnetic disturbances continue on Earth: on the night of November 8, a weak G1-level storm (Kp5+) was registered. According to data from the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, cited by Gazeta.Ru, the planet entered a plasma flow from a coronal hole during the night, yet the magnetosphere remained in the 'green zone' until the evening of the following day; there, they noted that 'everything has a limit of strength' and wondered why the storm had not started earlier. The solar wind speed in the vicinity of Earth over two days rose from about 300 to nearly 700 km/s, so a plunge into a storm was expected. During the storm, the visibility zone of auroras expanded sharply; Life.ru previously reported that the glow could be seen over northwestern regions of Russia under sufficiently clear skies.