NASA says solar eruptions are increasing - here's how it could affect us
The star of our solar system becomes more and more active, bringing potential implications for our planet.
Although it literally makes the world turn, it is always difficult to overestimate how the sun affects our daily life. It creates day and night by move in the sky , causes heat waves in summer and can ensure that the winter months feel positively fresh with its relative absence. But the fact that the star of our solar system is always the most extremely powerful celestial object in the immediate vicinity of our planet can also cause other events on occasion. And now NASA claims that solar eruptions have started to increase in frequency. Read the rest to see how sun activity jump could affect us here on earth.
Read this then: 8 incredible things you can see in the night sky without telescope .
The sun has recently entered a more active cycle, bringing more solar eruptions.
Unlike the constantly evolving moon, it can be difficult to note that the sun behaves differently when it passes over it. But in recent months, the namesake of our solar system has experienced a considerable peak in activity as more frequent enlightening rockets and other phenomena stretched inconceivably Energy bursts In space, according to NASA.
The increase in events began after the start of solar cycle 25 in December 2019 with what is called a minimum solar. The natural cycles of 11 years of the star are based on ups and downs in the activity of the sun because it passes from relatively calm to more "stormy", producing more solar spots before its magnetic poles end up reverse, by NASA. This time, the space agency says that the sun "already exceeds predictions" with its activity, which should increase until solar maximum is reached in 2025.
The activity and rashes of the increased sun can affect daily life on earth.
An active sun can put a dazzling display in the form of solar enlightening rockets and coronal mass ejections (CME) - an explosion of plasma and magnetic field - leaves the star. However, some of these explosions can also send massive bursts of charged particles to our planet if the timing is right. Some of the most powerful rockets create energy equivalent to a billion hydrogen bombs - or enough to supply the whole world for about 20,000 years, says NASA.
Fortunately, our planet is not unrelated to this type of phenomenon. Our atmosphere protects us from intense radiation which would be otherwise very harmful. However, you could always notice when an important sunscreen or a CME arrives to hit the earth, especially because they become stronger and more frequent.
"With more activity, an increase in spatial weather events, including solar eruptions and solar eruptions, which may have an impact on radio communications, electrical networks and navigation signals, as well as the risks of space and 'Astronauts, "writes NASA. "We have growing dependence on space technology and ground infrastructure that are sensitive to the dynamic nature of space."
The agency warns that particularly strong sunscreen and CMEs could disrupt the upper atmosphere of the earth with electric loaded under the name of ionosphere, causing problems for daily elements such as radios and GPS navigation. Although many disturbances are short -term, power outages can continue for hours in the worst cases, creating problems for emergency intervention teams that count on radios to communicate during natural disasters.
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Intense solar events could also create problems for electrical networks and other equipment.
Ironically, a hyperactive sun could also send the planet in the dark. A sudden radiance of very busy particles can create electric currents In the ionosphere, causing interference with electrical particles on the ground which could flood electrical networks, according to Insider. Although interference can be temporary, overload could also damage transformers and explode them. AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB
An event of this magnitude would make repairs to bring the power "a question of weeks or even months". Mathew Owens , a teacher of space physics at the University of Reading, said to Insider. "Then you lose refrigeration, you lose the power of hospitals-things become quite serious," he warned.
The earth has experienced such interference in the past, including an intense solar storm in 1859 which eliminated telegraph lines around the world, reports initiates. And more recently, the interference of a solar storm eliminated electrical networks across Quebec, Canada in 1989 which reduced electricity for nine hours.
Communication disruptions could also have an impact on your travel plans. Owens also said to inside that "space weather can be ground flights" when radio and satellite instruments become inoperable. And in a recent study, data has shown that an increase in solar activity has coincided with a probability of 21% Flight delays at least 30 minutes in the past 22 years.
Some experts say that measures are in place to help protect against any major event.
But even if it may seem that the imminent danger goes to us thanks to the peak of solar activity, some experts are always optimistic that the risk of any type of major disaster remains pretty low. Scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Forecast Office are currently using observation data to give electricity companies the head that interference could happen, American scientist reported. This type of preparation allows them to reduce power or provide online backup equipment to avoid problems.
The regularity of the sun activity cycle also shows us that more lighting rockets and CME do not always coincide with chaos. "At this point, I don't need to convince you that we are not facing the apocalypse," Erika Palmerio , a heliophysicist of the predictive science research society, said American scientist During an interview last January. "With each solar cycle, it is as if we forget what had happened in the previous one. In [the cycle which extended from 1996 to 2008], we saw really strong events. And I am almost Sure most people did not even know these events occurred. "
"We have to monitor and have to be prepared. But we don't have to lose sleep on this subject," she added.
If anything, the worst disasters will probably come closer to their home. "As a person who works with this every day, I'm much more afraid of a" Doomsday day "derived from land time such as forest fires, hurricanes and extreme weather conditions", underlines Palmerio.