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Explosion on The Sun - Solar Flares the 8 Minute Journey

Solar system flares are the biggest explosions in the universe, and the most energetic. We were holding first discovered by Galileo in the early 17th century, then later on in 1859 by an English amateur astronomer by the name of Richard Christopher Carrington. After that, they haven't only been observed on the sun, but they have been viewed on other stars likewise.

A solar flare may be a large explosion in the sun atmosphere that may release just as much as 6 × 1025 joules of energy(of a sixth of the total energy output of the sun each second). Although hard to predict their occurrence with any certainty, the only warning lies in the fact that most proton storms take several hours from the time of visual detection to reach earth's orbit (providing almost no time to organize for their impact).

Solar flares come from a procedure called magnetic reconnection whereby opposite magnetic fields on the sun's surface add up resulting in a sudden release of energy. Solar flares affect all layers of the solar atmosphere (photosphere, corona, and chromosphere), causing plasma to heat up to tens of millions of kelvins(a unit of measurement of temperature) and accelerating electrons, protons, and heavier ions to near the speed of light. In fact, while the fastest day at the moon took 8 hours and 38 minutes, solar flares generally take just a 8 minutes to find their way into the earths ionosphere an can have damaging effects. These flares produce radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum in any respect wavelengths, from radio waves to gamma rays and for that reason, can result in damaging effects on the earth for example: Loss of power systems, radiation poisoning, rendering chip ran vehicles powerless, affecting inter-planetary travel for astronauts, along with cellphones (along with other electronics) and satellite interruptions (and also other systems operating at those frequencies).

Most flares occur in active regions around sunspots (visible dark spots on the photosphere of the sun), where intense magnetic fields penetrate the photosphere (deepest region of the sun) to link the corona (type of plasma atmosphere that extends far into space) to the solar interior. Flares are powered by the sudden release of magnetic energy stored in the corona. Should a solar flare is exceptionally powerful, it may coronal mass ejections(massive burst of wind, plasma, magnetic energy is released into space).

Solar activity varies using an 11-year cycle (the solar cycle). At the peak of the cycle there are actually typically more sunspots on the Sun, and for that reason more solar flares. NASA predicts as the sun approaches its 11 year cycle in 2012, when the sun aligns with the milky way galaxy(a function which only occurs approx. every 211,000 years), grows the amount of solar flares the sun experiences as well as perhaps increased dangers to the earth (because of potential increased coronal mass ejections).

Although solar flares can be troublesome from time to time, they also have been connected with contributing to the breathtaking southern and northern polar lights phenomenons for instance the aurora borealis and aurora australis.

The most notable solar storm in history happened in 1859 (called the Carrington Event named after English amateur astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington)causing telegraph wires in both the U. s. and Europe to spontaneously short out (lasting 8 days), causing numerous fires, and the phenomena of the Northern Lights to generally be observed as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii. It was recorded that the Northern Lights were so bright, located on the internet read the newspaper solely looking at the illumination. Of late, a 1994 solar storm caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites, disrupting newspaper, network television and nationwide radio service throughout Canada.

Whether the sun shall be in its active or quiet period on or before 2012, scientists is only able to predict. The fact remains that solar storms occur almost daily and tend to be a great deal an important part of our existence. The National Academy of Sciences report says a huge solar event could induce ground currents which would knock out 300 key transformers within about 90 seconds. Just as with any impending threats to the earth, it will always be recommended that you hold fast to the old addage,"it's best to be safe than sorry" and become prepared by informing yourself on the way to survive a massive solar storm.

Reference moon.