Triple Eruption From Sun Captured On Camera

The sun has fired out the three most powerful solar flares seen this year, NASA has revealed.

Its Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the M-level flares, a category just below the most intense X-class flares, over the weekend.

The sun's activity is at the lowest level for 100 years, something which researchers believe could cause major changes in temperature.

But the latest observations show that despite the period of relative calm, the 4.5 billion-year-old ball of gas still has the ability to surprise skywatchers.

The first flare happened on Friday at 10.11am, followed by the strongest of the flares at 1.16am the next day.

About 15 minutes later, the final flare appeared from the sun's surface.

The short, powerful eruptions release potentially harmful levels of radiation - but they are not capable of passing through the Earth's atmosphere,

However, they often disrupt GPS signals and satellites which orbit the globe.

The sun's activity runs on an 11-year cycle, and earlier this year NASA described it as being in cueball mode - meaning there were no large visible sunspots on the surface.

This year has seen the smallest number of sunspots - magnetic field fluxes which appear as dark spots - since 1906.

The previous solar cycle peaked in 2000-2002 with many furious solar storms.

Some researchers believe that low solar activity, acting alongside increased volcanic activity, played a role in creating the Little Ice Age in the 17th century.