If a scientist tells you sunny days are ahead – duck and cover!
He may be talking about space weather and the giant solar flares
that fry satellites and national electrical grids! Just in case
you haven’t had enough stormy weather here on Earth, astronomers
are warning us to expect some major solar storms over the next
few years. Coming our way—more solar flares. Click to expand!
Source: NASA Solar Dynamic Observatory Here’s what they are
talking about. The sun is a spinning ball of hot magnetized gas
and plasma. As it spins, the magnetic force lines in the sun
become tangled. After a few years, the twisted magnetic fields
are so tangled that they stick out in giant loops through sun’s
surface – creating dark sun spots. When the sun is covered with
giant storms and sunspots—something has to give. For the three
years following the solar peak of activity, something does. Like
a rubber band stretched beyond endurance, the magnetic fields
snap and break. This splatters large hunks of the solar gas and
plasma out