As the sun enters the next phase of its 11 year solar cycle it sure is stirring up some
Mischief the sun seems to be throwing fiery tantrums and oozing angry flares
towards us with one flare even knocking out an unsuspecting satellite scientists
are now worried that the huge Sunspot on the surface of the Sun is aimed directly
at us with deadly solar flares ready to fire at any given moment welcome to Factnomenal and in
today's video we'll take a close look at what exactly is causing the sun to break out into
Fierce solar flares and what that could potentially mean for life here on Earth
Solar activity has been on the rise lately and with it comes the imminent threat of solar flares
if you don't know what a solar flare is well think of it as the sun having a huge zit nobody
likes a zit and neither does the sun except on the sun it's extremely hot and angry and could
potentially be fatal for us here on Earth should it pop these solar flares in just a matter of a
few minutes can heat material to millions of degrees and produce an outburst of radiation
across the electromagnetic spectrum according to the European Space Agency a solar flare is defined
as a tremendous explosion on the Sun that happens when the energy stored in Twisted magnetic fields
is suddenly released typically there are three categories of solar flares x-class flares are the
big bad one you want to watch out for these types of solar vents can actually cause radial black
workouts around the whole world as well as chaotic radiation storms in the upper atmosphere then you
have m-class flares which cause only brief radio blackouts and mainly affect the Earth's polar
regions minor radiation storms can be expected but they're far less catastrophic when compared
to x-class flares lastly C-Class flares which are the smallest and tamest but still manage to have
a few noticeable consequences here on Earth sounds complicated well when it comes to our
giant anxious star that's currently at the peak of its 11-year cycle you could very well say so
it's a turbulent time for the sun it's more sunspots seem to be emerging on its surface
and as a result the number of solar flares and coronal mass ejections or CMEs grows it's almost
as if the Sun is throwing a huge tantrum and our planet Earth is taking the heat for it
coronal mass ejections were once thought to have been the same as solar flares however
we've come to understand that they should not be confused with each other on the one
hand we have coronal mass ejections which are huge bubbles of gas threaded with the magnetic
field lines that are ejected by the surface of the sun over the course of several hours if a
coronal mass ejection ever happens to collide with the Earth it could lead to a geomagnetic
storm meaning Mass power outages and damaged or destroyed communication satellites that's
right kids no internet no Instagram no Tick Tock just cured Darkness the biggest meanest
of all CMEs can actually compress our planet's magnetic field as it passes resulting in what's
known as a geomagnetic storm solar flares on the other hand directly affect the ionosphere
and radio communications on Earth which sounds tame in comparison to what we just mentioned
about coronal mass ejections but to ignore the possible impact they could have on the Earth
would still be entirely foolish in 1989 a large solar flare accompanied a coronal mass ejection
and hit Earth plunging the entire province of Quebec Canada into an electrical blackout that
lasted a total of 12 hours according to NASA in today's day and age where we're so completely
dependent on technology from home appliances to cell phones to our computers cars and more
12 hours of a blackout could actually have catastrophic repercussions Additionally the
a solar eruption triggered a geomagnetic storm on Earth resulting in Aurora Borealis or what we know
as the Northern Lights although that's really a not so terrible result of a solar flare as
they are breathtakingly achingly beautiful but we cannot forget that solar radiation
storms pose a significant risk to astronauts in spacecraft orbiting the Earth they're the most
susceptible to such radiation radiation emitted from these solar flares travels at the speed of
light meaning it can reach the earth from the sun in Just Around 8 minutes so in short if a
major flare were to occur we wouldn't even be prepared to react to such a sudden outburst
foreign
researchers and various space agencies like NASA and the esa are always monitoring our star ever
on the lookout for such sunspots and flares the only thing we can do is be aware and cautious but
in the event of a large solar flare coupled with coronal mass objections we would have no choice
but to face the fire quite literally well doing a solar activity Roundup NASA even posted on Twitter
that the sun seemed to be in quite the angry mood coming in with a total of 19 solar flares
17 coronal mass ejections and 11 sunspots observed between August 15th and August 21st it seems to be
a very turbulent time for the hot giant this is exactly what's causing panic among scientists
right now as they share their concerns about a massive Sunspot that seems to have grown about
10 times in size in just two days the Sunspot named ar-3085 popped up rather unexpectedly
on the surface of the Sun and within a span of two days it's reportedly increased 10 times in
size this Behemoth of a sunspot even has a core that's nearly equal to the diameter of the Earth
but that's not the worst part to make matters worse it happens to be pointed right towards
our planet pictures from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory or sdo show how the Sunspot grew
in size from the afternoon of August 21st to the evening of August 22nd the alarming rate at which
the Sunspot is growing has captured the attention of experts and space agencies who are now trying
to figure out just what this could possibly turn into and how badly it might affect us if the fiery
giant does happen to burst given the way it keeps growing its size then it it would potentially
send strong solar flares blasting towards us that said we do live on a planet that's quite strongly
protected we have a thick atmosphere that stops most of the harmful radiation that's produced
by solar flares still not all solar flares are completely harmless it may not be as fatal as it
would be if directly contacting human skin but it's not good news for communications
technology radio astronauts or our spacecraft it could also mean problems for aircraft flying
in the sky disrupting navigation and ruining vacation plans for people like you and me as of
now the only good news we have is that it's been emitting only C-Class flares so far which as we
established earlier are the weakest of the three classes and not likely to do as much harm yet
in more recent news an active Sunspot named ar-307a ejected four m-class solar flares
and over a dozen sea flares and from the looks of it it probably won't be the last just last
month another similar Sunspot ar-306 ain't grew triple in size initiating a massive G3 class solar
storm on Earth causing wide skill disruption in GPS systems as well as radio blackouts in
multiple regions all over the planet so if you're thinking back to anytime last month where you may
have encountered any of these issues well now you know why so how worried should we be exactly for
now experts say that Sunspot ar-3085 is expected to calm down for the rest of the week but what it
could potentially do in the future is as of yet unknown this is as opposed to the previous weeks
where the Earth was being blasted with several coronal mass ejections and solar flares and
space weather alerts were being issued regardless space weather activity is expected to increase
significantly in the near future considering that the sun is in one of the more active stages of
its 11-year solar cycle time will tell what more our blazing star has in store for us and whether
it plans on having any more angry flare-ups that we should be concerned about for now we can only
hope that this was the worst of its breakouts so what do you think should we be worried about
Sunspot AR 3085 let us know in the comments and don't forget to smash that like button and
subscribe to the channel so you don't miss a thing thanks for watching and we'll see you next time