Solar Flare Study Helped By NASA’s MinXSS CubeSat

The first mention of solar flares in astronomy was on Sept. 1, 1859, and while 157 years have passed since, there is still a lot we don’t know about them. To fill some of the gaps in our understanding, specifically about the effect a particular class of X-rays — that form a part of the flares — has on Earth, NASA launched a miniature satellite earlier this year, and the data have started coming in.