The sun fired off its strongest solar flare of the year Tuesday, though the massive sun storm should not post a major concern for Earth, space weather experts say

This handout picture released by the NASA and coming from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on November 5, 2013 shows the Sun brightened when an X-class solar flare—the largest so far this year—burst from a large, active sunspot. The flare followed a series of more than a two dozen flares that have occurred since October 21, though the November 5 flare originated in a different active region. The event was classified an X3.3 flare, falling into the category of most intense explosions. This view of the flare comes from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and it shows the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light (blending 193 and 131 angstrom observations). The long streak of light is likely due to solar protons saturating the imager. The unusual color is due to the blending of false colors that are assigned to each wavelength by solar physicists to distinguish the different bands. The image is from 5:12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (22:12 UTC), the peak of the short flare.