Northern lights are projected across the Northern U.S. and Europe tonight as Earth gets hit by a strong solar eruption.

“The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on June 3, peaking at 7:28 a.m. ET,” NASA, the federal body constantly watching the sun through its Solar Dynamics Observatory, said. The observatory captured an image of the event now released to the public.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation from the sun's surface, which can wreak havoc on Earth's power grids, damage orbiting satellites, and pose serious radiation risks to astronauts. Yet despite decades of study,

Scientists spotted patterns hours before a major solar flare, a discovery that could help forecast dangerous eruptions.

The sun is an incomprehensibly gigantic, constantly roiling nuclear furnace—but some days are even busier than others. Based on data collected by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, our solar system’s central star recently fired off not one,

In less than 24 hours, the Sun erupted with three powerful solar flares.