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An X1-class flare erupted from sunspot AR2017 on Mar. 29th, 2014. NASA's SDO captured the fireworks and NASA's SOHO captured the resulting coronal mass .
Flares happen when the powerful magnetic fields in and around the sun reconnect. They're usually associated with active regions, often seen as sun spots, .
This is a composite animation showing the Sun as seen by two imagers on NASA's SDO satellite. One sees X-rays, where the Sun's magnetic field dominates, .