The sun is our greatest friend, provider of the energy that sustains all life on earth. Also, the sun is our greatest enemy, capable of unleashing the sort of electromagnetic waves that can destroy all of our modern communications equipment, satellites, and electrical power grid in one gigantic eruption of deadly radiation. It’s looking like the sun is becoming more and more dangerous, as our star has just unleashed a massive pair of solar flares aimed right at earth that will be battering our atmosphere for days, or even weeks, to come.
Said Dr. Lucie Green of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, “It looks like the first eruption was so large that it changed the magnetic fields throughout half the Sun’s visible atmosphere and provided the right conditions for the second eruption. Both eruptions could be Earth-directed but may be travelling at different speeds. This means we have a very good chance of seeing major and prolonged effects, such as the northern lights at low latitudes.”
Of course, scientists say we’ve got nothing to worry about. Which is, of course, what they say in every disaster movie right before everything hits the fan and the world gets plunged into the neo-stone age. I suggest we all head to our luxury fallout shelters, just in case.
Tags: NASA, solar flare, giant solar flare, solar flare tsunami, Solar Dynamics Observatory, space, astronomy, unusual space phenomenon, solar radiation, giant sun storms
