Solar activity can heat up so much, in fact, that the Sun’s magnetic poles end up flipping, blasting off massive amounts of solar material in the process.

The strongest X-class solar flare ever recorded was an X28-class flare, meaning that it was 28 times more powerful than the October 28 flare, according to NASA. It may have been even more powerful than that, as the sensors cut out at that level.

These events are the biggest explosions in the solar system and can release as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs, according to NASA. So even though the Sun enables life on Earth, don’t ever forget its potential for terrible destruction as well.