Earth is in the firing line when a Colossal X-class solar flare erupts from a sunspot

In the early morning hours today (Aug. 14), the sun unleashed the most powerful class of solar flare, in a potent X-class eruption.
What makes this X-class solar flare particularly interesting is that it erupted from ‘rule-breaking’ sunspot AR3784 which had already garnered the attention of solar scientists and aurora chasers due to its strange polarity.
If opposite magnetic polarities get twisted together too tightly, there could be an X-class solar flare.”
Solar flares are eruptions on the sun’s surface that release intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation.
Radiation from solar flares reaches Earth at the speed of light and ionizes the upper atmosphere upon arrival.