The sun is prone to belching. Called sunspots or solar flares, these eruptions of hot gas and plasma are generally harmless, like the bubbling of a pot of soup, but every so often there’s a bit of splash back and Earth gets a little hot galactic grease on its planetary sleeve. Thanks to an increase in sunspot activity, a Class M6.6 solar flare is aimed directly at Earth. That sounds scary, I know, but please don’t panic. As it turns out, it could be a lot worse.
Fortunately, the massive solar flare isn’t expected to cause any damage. According to the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado, the flare is only a Class M; Class X solar flares are the ones that disrupt communications and damage electronics. Still, the eruption of sunspot 1158 is aimed right at earth and the NOAA says more eruptions are coming in this direction, so there might be some problems with radio signals this morning in addition to a bit of a light show.
The effects will start early this morning and will likely continue on for the next few days, depending on how active that region of the sun stays.
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