The sun has unleashed its most powerful explosion in four years.

So violent was the eruption - known as an X-class flare, the strongest type - that scientists have warned it could interfere with communications on Earth.

The blast took place at 1.56am on Tuesday and was the largest so far in the new solar cycle.

Erupting from active region AR1158 in the sun's southern hemisphere, the flare was captured in extreme ultraviolet image by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

The intense burst of electromagnetic radiation above a 60,000mile-wide dark sunspot momentarily overwhelmed pixels in SDO's detectors, causing the bright vertical blemish. [ DAILY MAIL UK ]