By Ron Cowen
At the tumultuous peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the sun is spitting out X-ray flares and belching giant clouds of high-energy particles at a furious rate.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/04/258.jpg?resize=117%2C99&ssl=1)
On April 2, the sun unleashed the most powerful flare recorded since regular
measurements began 25 years ago.
Packing more energy than 100 megatons of TNT, the flare erupted from a turbulent
region on the sun’s northwest edge that had grown to be 13 times bigger than