Recently, astronomers discovered a massive explosion on the sun’s far side, which could be one of the strongest flares the sun has ever created.
Recently, a huge explosion on the far side of the sun created an X-class flare, among the strongest solar flares ever seen. The resulting solar storm is going to miss the earth only narrowly, but the sunspot that is belching out power could soon be pointed straight at our world.
The epic eruption was found on Jan. 3 by the solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), an Earth-orbiting spacecraft co-operated by NASA as well as the European Space Agency. SOHO discovered a bright stream of plasma, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), which emerged from the sun’s southeast limb, based on Spaceweather.com.
The CME was most likely given off by a concealed far side flare and registered as a C type event, the third highest class of solar flares. (Solar flare – classes consist of A, B, C, M, and X, with each class at least 10 times more powerful than the last.) However based on the size and strength of the visible CME, experts believe the hidden outburst which created it was most likely big enough to be classified as an X-Class flare.
NASA states that the most powerful X-class flares are able to erupt from the sun with the same pressure of a billion hydrogen bombs. In case one of those flares hits the top on, it might result in widespread radio as well as electric blackouts on the edge of the earth facing the sun and harm to satellites orbiting the planet. The ensuing auroras could be so powerful they may even provide nearby airplane passengers tiny doses of radiation, based on NASA.
Experts in the National Oceanic as well as Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) modeled the solar storm brought on by the latest X-class flare, and discovered that it’d directly miss Earth during the next couple of days, according to Spaceweather.com. Having said that, it does not mean we will stay in the clear for very long.
Astronomers think the huge flare was produced from a sunspot – dark, planet-sized regions which develop in the sun’s lower atmosphere as the result of magnetic disturbances – referred to as AR3163, that turned onto the far side of the sun roughly 2 days ago after spitting out a flurry of gentle CMEs on the sun’s near side. Industry experts think that the sunspot continues to grow in size after the concealed flare, dependent on the possible energy of the flare, because it disappeared from view, reported Spaceweather.com.
As soon as the latest flare erupted, AR3163 was expected to reemerge within 2 days on the near side of the sun based on acoustic pictures known as helioseismic echoes which could identify problems on the concealed surface area of the sunshine. On Jan. 5, the nearest edge of AR3163 started to show up on the sun horizon as anticipated, based on Spaceweather.com (opens in new tab). It’s quickly pointed straight at the Earth and possesses the ability to spit much more X-class flares, though the odds of a direct hit are fairly small.
Presently, the planet is in perihelion, which means that our world may be the closest to the sun. On Jan. 4, another CME given off by an M-class flare, that had been capable of triggering small radio blackouts, bashed into Earth directly as the planet relocated into its closest possible proximity to the sun.
When we approach the close of the 11-year solar cycle, solar activity is going to continue to grow, and will peak in 2025. Throughout December 2022 there have been twenty four active sunspots on the sun, the greatest number for over 7 years, based on Spaceweather.com.
