A Solar Flare Affair—A Bursting Summer in the Sun [PHOTOS]

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With recent heatwaves breaking out across the northern hemisphere, you may think we're approach temperatures like those on the surface of the sun. But it turns out the sun just got a bit hotter.

Captured this past weekend, Aug. 24, by NASA'a Solar Dynamics Observatory, the sun emitted a mid-level solar flare early in the morning just after sunrise and erupted on the left side of the sun. A powerful burst of radiation, researchers estimate that the 131 and 171 Angstrom light emissions are characteristic of an extremely hot flare that burned teal in the fusion/fission reactions of the sun.

"Solar flares directly affect the ionosphere and radio communications at the Earth, and also release energetic particles into space" the European Space Agency (ESA) reports. But while you may have received some jammed radio signals or interference on your morning commute, NASA confirms that the radiation from the flare cannot pass through the Earth's atmosphere and does not pose serious concern to human health.

NASA reports that no disturbances in Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and communications have been recorded, however, advises the public to be aware that summertime solar emissions like these flares can cause brief disruption in many media services.

Although quite powerful and large, the flare was classified as an M5 flare, a class of flares that are ten times less powerful than the intense and harmful X-class flares.