Sun fires off 3 huge flares, including strongest in a decade

The sun is having quite a week. 
Our nearest star has shot out three powerful solar flares in the past two days, sending bursts of hot plasma into the solar system, on a possible collision course with Earth's magnetic field. 
The most extreme of those flares — a class X9.3 flare — was the most powerful flare we've seen in more than 10 years. 
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An X2.2 flare shot out just before the X9 flare on W