Have you noticed spots appearing on the Suns surface? Well, they are not ordinary spots; they are something way more dangerous. As the Sun rotates, plasma inside it churns violently. This creates a magnetic field. The Sun spots twist up their magnetic field as the sun turns, this magnetic field stores energy. Overtime, this energy is stored in the twisted sun spot. It creates a loop of plasma flowing across the stars surface. When the magnetic field becomes too twisted, it can snap just like a rubber band; creating a solar flare. It is then sent hurtling towards the Earth at millions of kilometres an hour.
But what pulls the trigger of a solar storm? The Sun is blowing magnetic bubbles off it's surface, if these bubbles are not blown hard, then it just expands slowly. But if the Sun blows a lot with its magnetic field, then this bubble of plasma breaks off and flows into space towards Earth.
The solar flare explosion has a power of a billion atom bombs; that is a lot.
The Earth has a magnetic field around it. It is open at the North and South Poles. This magnetic field protects Earth from many things like meteors. Also, the magnetic field naturally repels solar storms of a North Polarity. This unfortunately means that solar storms with a South Polarity can get through and damage all the electronic devices. The satellites within a certain height above Earth will suffer badly and could veer off course and crash on Earth.devastating news for all NASA satellites.
A solar storm is hitting Earth TODAY. We have an image of what damage it can cause after previous solar storms. Scientists say that there are going to be more solar storms over the next two years. Let's hope we are prepared for what will come in the future...
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