New update on ‘Bird wing’ solar eruption that could hit Earth
A major solar eruption could impact the Earth, according to astronomers.
A major solar eruption, also being called as the "bird-wing" event, is set to possibly impact the Earth tomorrow. This comes as a direct warning from astronomers, with a tremendous eruption of superheated plasma surging across the Sun's northern hemisphere.
New solar phenomenon witnessed
This plasma element, measuring over a million kilometers in length, was more than twice the distance from Earth to the Moon. NASA 's observation satellites captured this epic moment where the superheated plasma tore away from the sun in sweeping "wings". Even though all of this happened at a huge distance away from Earth, astronomers believe that this phenomenon could affect Earth. Aurora chaser Jure Atanackov has warned that the impact might trigger a major geomagnetic storm on Earth, which could surpass usual weather scales.
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The radiation of these solar flares has already triggered radio blackouts on the sun-facing side of the planet at the time of the flares. This includes North and South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, according to Live Science.
What are solar flares?
Solar flares are sudden and intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation that are released from the Sun's surface due to intense magnetic activity. When the stress on these field lines becomes too great, they can suddenly snap and begin realigning, releasing a massive amount of stored magnetic energy as a solar flare.
Wednesday's solar flare also flung out a coronal mass ejection (CME). It is basically a massive explosion of charged solar plasma, which are often spewed out from the sun's surface at the same time as a solar flare.
While flares travel at the speed of light, CMEs travel at between 250 kilometers per second (km/s) and 3000 km/s, taking a few days to reach our planet, says Live Science.
