Earth-Killing Superflare Could Be Unleashed by Our Sun

Flares often occur on the surface of the Sun, but none was big enough to affect us since the 1800’s.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – The scientists fear that an Earth-killing superflare could be unleashed by our Sun and destroy our planet as we know it. Astronomers have been studying solar flares and superflares emitted by the suns in our galaxy. It seems that our own is quite tame comparing to others. But for how long?

Some researchers fear that an Earth-killing superflare could be unleashed by our Sun anytime, and it would wipe out all life on the Green Planet. But what are the odds of that happening?

First of all, we can look back at the Carrington Event that took place in between August 28^th and September 2^nd, 1859. At the time, the solar flare caused a geomagnetic storm that affected all mechanical appliances and telecommunications.

If nineteenth-century people were affected by a solar flare, imagine the damage such an incident would cause today when the society is as dependent on technology as it is on air. And the Carrington flare is insignificant compared to the superflares that scientists have observed in other galaxies.

A team of researchers at Aarhus University looked into the possibility of our sun producing an Earth-killing superflare.

According to Christoffer Karoff, the lead researcher of the study, our Sun could not be capable of unleashing such a deadly flare. It seems that the astronomers found a connection between the superflares and the magnetic fields present on the surface of the stars. Our heat emitting, life-nurturing star is not compatible with those findings, so we could breathe deep and relax.

In order to reach these conclusions, Karoff’s team studied over 100,000 suns with China’s “Guo Shou Jing” telescope. They found that a mere ten percent out of the total number of stars studied were capable of emitting solar flares.

These same stars had a magnetic field weaker than our sun, so it seems that for the moment we shouldn’t worry that we will die because of the super-hot plasma that will cover the planet in the case of a superflare.

Or, in the best-case scenario, the atmosphere would be dramatically changed, and we would die due to intoxication or asphyxiation. But researchers said that the theory stating that an Earth-killing superflare could be unleashed by our Sun and destroy all life on Earth is “highly unlikely.”

Image source: Wikimedia

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John Birks

John holds a diploma in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He covers the technology, social media, green business, eco-travel, politics, arts culture.