Friday 26 August 2022

That's A Big Mass Ejection

A Coronal Mass Ejections sounds like something you would see on a film of the Adult variety but it is a thing and one has been been spent spinning our way courtesy of our Star.
The Sun has been getting a bit frisky this week and has been sending Moderate-Class solar flares our way which resulted in an impressive aurora display and blacked out radio waves in parts of Europe and Africa but Sunspot AR3089 isn't finished with us just yet and has ejected more charged particles our way which are expected to strike our planet on Monday.
The solar flares range from A-class which are the weakest, then B-, C-, and M-class with X-class the strongest and it was an X3 Class which is threatening a direct hit and knocking out power lines, satellites and radio signals.
The Sun began its current cycle of solar activity in 2019, and is expected to reach the peak around 2025 but it is yet to top the biggest flare ever observed which was an X28 in 2003 which dealt the Earth a glancing blow but still had satellite engineers scurrying to redirect their satellites and airliners rerouted and polar routes restricted.
Although annoying to radio station owners, the solar flares are not dangerous in themselves due to our thick atmosphere stopping all of the harmful radiation before it reaches us on the ground but if one did get through and killed us all with radiation, at least we will go out with a beautiful solar light show.

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