Okay, guys. Everyone calm down and try not to panic. Take a Xanax if you have them or at the least, go eat a piece of fruit to soothe your innards. We have been experiencing a whole lot of cosmic events as of late, what with the lining up of planets and solar eclipses and all that jazz. And it looks like a massive solar storm could be hurtling toward earth.
According to a report from The Daily Caller, the sun emitted four solar flares at close to the same time on Tuesday and that might be what launched this solar storm in our direction. I don’t know about you guys, but do you remember the days when all of these new and unprecedented things only happened once in a while instead of on a daily basis. I really want precedented times back.
The “exceptionally rare, ‘quadruple’ solar flare” burst into life in the early hours of Tuesday morning (local time EST), taking up about a third of the sun’s solar surface facing Earth, according to Live Science. The flares were reportedly said to be interconnected and may have launched a serious solar storm that could “slam into” Earth “in the coming days.”
Footage of the event was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory, showing a huge series of plasma loops hurling themselves from the sun’s surface. Scientists call these types of behaviors “sympathetic solar flares,” which happen when sunspots or filaments are seemingly unlinked to the naked eye but burst forth in quick succession, Live Science reported.
Think of it like a series of volcanic eruptions that on the surface look separate in terms of where the lava is spewing forth. In reality the vents are all linked to the same magma chamber, which is pushing its contents to the surface through any hole possible.
Almost all previous sympathetic solar flares that have been recorded by science have only concerned two spots. The flare that occurred on Tuesday had a total of four, which is why it is called a “super sympathetic” flare.
Should the debris from these flares hit us, they’ll likely land on April 26, SpaceWeather said. However, this is still a pretty “big IF” at this stage of the analysis. But it’s definitely possible.
So what does a solar storm entail for us down here on earth? Well they can interfere with satellite operations, various communication systems, and even some power grids if they wash over the planet, Discovery says.
One of the most significant examples of a solar storm impacting Earth is the Carrington Event of 1859. At the beginning of September 1859, a powerful geomagnetic storm triggered by a massive solar flare hit Earth with such intensity that it caused telegraph systems across Europe and North America to fail, with reports of operators receiving shocks and telegraph papers catching fire. Though the impact on society at the time was relatively minimal, a similar solar storm today could significantly disrupt our modern, technology-dependent world.
I’m not scared. You’re scared. Don’t give me that look. We’ll probably be fine, you big baby. If you need me I’ll be under my bed.