Sun Unleashes Medium-Strength Solar Flare (Photo)

The sun fired off a midlevel solar flare early this morning (Aug. 24) while a NASA satellite watched. The space agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured an image of the flare, which erupted at 3:33 a.m. EDT (0733 GMT) this morning from an Earth-facing sunspot known as Active Region 2403. This morning's outburst registered as an M5.6, NASA scientists said.