Solar flare

The Earth Was Almost Fried Back in 2012

A massive solar storm in July 2012 was more intense than thought—and it blasted right through the Earth’s orbit. Luckily for us, we were on the other side of the sun, thus missing the chaos completely. But if that storm had hit this beautiful little blue marble in space? “The solar bursts would have enveloped…

Space & Spaceflight Geoff Manaugh Mar 19

Watch a giant solar flare erupt out of the sun!

Nope, that’s not lens flare you’re seeing. That’s a solar flare — an insanely large, extremely bright solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the footage of the strongest flare we’ve seen yet this year last night. According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, the flare was strong enough to temporarily send them into a…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 25

NASA’s IRIS Spots its Biggest Solar Flare Yet

Late last month, NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (aka IRIS) witnessed the strongest solar flare it’s glimpsed since its launch last year. IRIS spacecraft was deployed last June to observe the little-explored lower layers of the Sun’s multi-level atmosphere in unprecedented detail. Since then, it’s turned up never before-seen-images of the Sun’s chromosphere, the so-called…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 23

Tonight’s Your Best Chance to See Northern Lights In Years

Millions of charged particles are rushing toward earth after a gigantic solar flare on Tuesday. Bad news for NASA’s latest mission, but good news for sky-watchers: Those charged particles also collide with the earth’s atmosphere to produce the ethereal-looking northern lights. Normally, northern lights, or auroras, are only visible at or near the pole, to…

Space & Spaceflight Sarah Zhang Jan 9

Our Sun Emits One of the Most Violent Solar Flares This Year

Yesterday morning, the sun unleashed a powerful X1 solar flare. X-flares are the most powerful classification of solar eruption there is. This is the latest in a string of recent outbursts, with yesterday’s eruption among the most violent we’ve seen all year. Above: An X1-class flare erupts from the right side of the sun, emerging…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 20

2013’s solar maximum could be weakest since the dawn of the space age

So this is unexpected. The Sun is currently at the peak of its 11-year solar cycle. It should be awash with sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections and the like. And yet, observations indicate our parent star has actually been pretty quiet this year – so quiet, in fact, this year’s solar max could go…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jul 12

Become fluent in the vocabulary of solar flares and space weather

With all the exciting solar activity lately, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center shared this helpful tutorial about the vocabulary of space weather on their Facebook page. Now you can tell your CMEs apart from your solar flares. https://gizmodo.com/what-the-hell-is-happening-on-the-sun-505535245

io9 Amanda Yesilbas May 15

A breathtaking image of this year’s strongest solar flare so far

On April 11, 2013, at 3:16 a.m. EDT, the sun emitted an M6.5 flare, allowing NASA to capture this vibrant image. It’s not a particularly powerful solar flare, but it is the strongest of 2013 so far, and we’ll have plenty more opportunities to observe solar activity this year. The sun is expected to reach…

io9 Lauren Davis Apr 13

Watch four hours of Aurora Borealis compressed into three stunning minutes

Photographer Göran Strand used 2464 raw images taken with his all-sky camera to create this gorgeous time-lapse video. The swirling crystal ball images show the view from Östersund, Sweden, when a when a Coronal Mass Ejection hit Earth’s magnetic field. Sunspot AR1692 produced a M1-class solar flare and on March 17th, the resulting CME hit…

io9 Lauren Davis Mar 24

Watch this stunning solar eruption create loops of fiery rain on the Sun’s surface

This is incredible. NASA has just released a never-before-seen video of a solar eruption from July of last year that shows a solar flare, a coronal mass ejection, and loops of solar rain all occurring in one breathtaking sequence. The eruption started on July 19, 2012, when a moderately powerful solar flare burst from a…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 21

This is what a solar flare sounds like here on Earth

The Sun is nearing the pinnacle of its 11-year cycle of solar activity, which means things have been pretty wild on the surface of our resident star. As the cycle approaches peak activity (scheduled to climax this year), solar flares like the double eruption observed just this morning are expected to increase in both frequency…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 6

Can humans journey into deep space without cosmic radiation frying our brains?

Beyond a few brief trips to the Moon over four decades ago, humanity has never ventured outside of Earth’s protective magnetic field. And while it’s natural to dream of exploring the stars, such voyages may carry impossibly high medical risks. That’s the finding of researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who have undertaken…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 1

This is the most spectacular solar flare we’ve seen in ages

Earlier this afternoon, magnetic fields on the Sun’s northeastern limb exploded in an arcing jet of roiling plasma, producing what is hands down one of the most spectacular solar explosions we’ve seen in years. Featured here are two videos of the blast, captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory when the explosion occurred around 17:45 UT…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Apr 16

A massive solar eruption may lead to the strongest radiation storm in seven years

Last week, a swelling solar storm on the surface of the Sun sent a stream of charged particles hurtling toward Earth, making for beautiful northern lights in the planet’s extreme latitudes. But late last night, at 10:59 p.m. EST, the now massive tempest unleashed an eruption that scientists expect will be responsible for Earth’s largest…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 23

Massive new sunspot is three times as wide as the Earth

It might not look like much relative to the rest of the sun’s surface, but the sunspot pictured up top (dubbed AR1339 by the folks at NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory) is positively massive — the biggest astronomers have observed in years. According to SpaceWeather.com, AR1339 is about 50,000 miles long and 25,000 miles wide. As…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 4

Solar storm throws up plasma bursts bigger than our entire planet

No, Earth hasn’t suddenly migrated next to the Sun, but everything else about this picture is awesomely real. This is a plasma eruption from sunspot group AR 1302, the most recent solar storm to wreak havoc on Earth’s magnetic field. Thankfully, said havoc has pretty much been limited to some especially spectacular auroras. But there’s…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Oct 2

This massive solar flare will make for dazzling northern lights

Things are getting pretty wild on the surface of the Sun. Our resident star is nearing the pinnacle of its 11-year cycle of solar activity, which is scheduled to climax in 2013. As it approaches peak activity, energetic flares — like the one pictured here — are expected to increase in both frequency and intensity.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Sep 8

Spectacular Coronal Mass Ejection Hitting Earth Tonight at 3.1 Million Miles Per Hour

Put on your tinfoil hats, because the Sun just had an indigestion. According to NASA, this “spectacular coronal mass ejection should deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field during the late hours of June 8th or June 9th.” The CME was accompanied by a medium-sized solar flare and a minor radiation storm. The event…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jun 8

How worried should we be about solar storms?

The Sun is entering a period of seriously intense solar activity, releasing huge volleys of charged particles and plasma blobs into space, including the recent Valentine’s Day X-class flare, the most extreme in years. So how much of a threat do these flares really pose, and how prepared are we for a seriously disruptive solar…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 20

The Sun unleashes its biggest solar flare in years

Earlier this week, the Sun emitted its first X-class solar flare in about four years. The most powerful form of solar flare, this particular flare has lit up a massive region on the Sun’s southern hemisphere…and any of our readers in the far northern or southern latitudes will be treated to some particularly amazing auroras…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 17

The Earth Was Almost Fried Back in 2012

Watch a giant solar flare erupt out of the sun!

NASA’s IRIS Spots its Biggest Solar Flare Yet

Tonight’s Your Best Chance to See Northern Lights In Years

Our Sun Emits One of the Most Violent Solar Flares This Year

2013’s solar maximum could be weakest since the dawn of the space age

Become fluent in the vocabulary of solar flares and space weather

A breathtaking image of this year’s strongest solar flare so far

Watch four hours of Aurora Borealis compressed into three stunning minutes

Watch this stunning solar eruption create loops of fiery rain on the Sun’s surface

This is what a solar flare sounds like here on Earth

Can humans journey into deep space without cosmic radiation frying our brains?

This is the most spectacular solar flare we’ve seen in ages

A massive solar eruption may lead to the strongest radiation storm in seven years

Massive new sunspot is three times as wide as the Earth

Solar storm throws up plasma bursts bigger than our entire planet

This massive solar flare will make for dazzling northern lights

Spectacular Coronal Mass Ejection Hitting Earth Tonight at 3.1 Million Miles Per Hour

How worried should we be about solar storms?

The Sun unleashes its biggest solar flare in years

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