Solar Flares Fire Double Sun Storm at Earth_Featured_, Earth,
Space Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 An active sunspot is amping up
the sun’s activity, and has already unleashed two strong solar
flares that triggered weekend geomagnetic storms on Earth, NASA
officials say. The M-class solar flares set off two coronal mass
ejections (CMEs) that erupted from the sun on last Wednesday and
Thursday (June 13 and June 14). The first flare peaked Wednesday
at 9:17 a.m. EDT (1317 GMT), and lasted for three hours, NASA
scientists said. The resulting CME was hurled into space
directly toward Earth, but was not expected to carry serious
effects for the planet because it was traveling at a relatively
slow speed. The second solar flare peaked on June 14 at 10:08
a.m. EDT (1408 GMT), and was also considered a long-duration
event, agency officials said. NASA also released a video of the
M-class solar flare on June 14 as it was observed by the sun-
watching Solar Dynamics Observatory. Both CMEs from last week
crashed into Earth’s pro