ASTRONOMERS have shared an unprecedented image of a huge solar eruption.
The image snapped by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft shows superhot material bursting from the Sun’s surface on February 15.
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According to the European Space Agency (ESA), it’s the largest “solar prominence” ever observed with the full solar disk in a single image.
“Solar prominences are large structures of tangled magnetic field lines that keep dense concentrations of solar plasma suspended above the Sun’s surface, sometimes taking the form of arching loops,” ESA said.
“They are often associated with coronal mass ejections, which if directed towards Earth, can wreak havoc with our technology and everyday lives.”
On February 15, our star fired off two enormous explosions from its farside in what has already been a heavy month of solar activity.
Fortunately, the plume of gas and particles erupted from the Sun’s farside and so missed our planet.
According to ESA, it extended millions of kilometres into space.
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The Solar Orbiter – a Sun-observing satellite developed by ESA and Nasa – captured the blast using its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument.
The magnificent coronal mass ejection (CME) was recorded by a number of space telescopes, including Nasa’s STEREO-A spacecraft.
CMEs are giant eruptions that send plasma hurtling through space – and the Sun has undergone several of them throughout the month.
If they hit Earth, the plumes of material can trigger geomagnetic storms that knock out satellites and disrupt power grids.
Based on its size, it’s possible that the eruption was an X-class flare: The most powerful category possible.
“Other space telescopes… frequently see solar activity like this, but either closer to the Sun, or further out by means of an occulter, which blocks out the glare of the Sun’s disc to enable detailed imagery of the corona itself,” ESA said.
“Thus, the prominence observed by Solar Orbiter is the largest ever event of its kind to be captured in a single field of view together with the solar disc.”
It added that the image “opens up new possibilities to see how events like these connect to the solar disc for the first time.”
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It’s been a busy month of solar activity. The Sun has erupted every day for the month of February, according to astronomer Dr Tony Phillips, who runs the website spaceweather.com. Some days have seen multiple solar flares.
Three of them have fallen into the second-most powerful flare category, M-class flares. January saw five M-class flares.
One such flare led to a solar storm on January 29 that knocked 40 SpaceX satellites out of action.
The rest of the flares in February have fallen into the milder C-class category.
While it might sound frightening, it’s all part of our Sun’s normal activity – so there’s no need to panic just yet.
Astronomers keep a close eye on the Sun’s activity to ensure that there is plenty of warning before any potential geomagnetic storm hits.
What are geomagnetic storms?
Geomagnetic storms are caused by CMEs, which are huge expulsions of hot material called plasma from the Sun’s outer layer.
They can lead to the appearance of colourful auroras by energising particles in our planet’s atmosphere
Each solar storm is graded by severity on a scale of one to five, with a G1 described as “minor” and a G5 as “extreme”.
At the upper end of the scale, storms wreak havoc on our planet’s magnetic field, which can disrupt power grids and communications networks.
“Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground,” Nasa says.
“However – when intense enough – they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.”
When have major geomagnetic storms hit Earth?
In the past, larger solar flares have wreaked havoc on our planet.
In 1989, a strong solar eruption shot so many electrically charged particles at Earth that the Canadian Province of Quebec lost power for nine hours.
As well as causing issues for our tech, they can cause harm to astronauts working on the International Space Station, either through radiation exposure or by interfering with mission control communications.
The Earth’s magnetic field helps to protect us from the more extreme consequences of solar flares.
Weaker solar flares – which are far more common – are responsible for auroras such as the Northern Lights.
Those natural light displays are examples of the Earth’s magnetosphere getting bombarded by solar wind, which creates the bright green and blue displays.
The sun is currently at the start of a new 11-year solar cycle, which usually sees eruptions and flares grow more intense and extreme.
These events are expected to peak around 2025 and it’s hoped the Solar Orbiter will observe them all as it aims to fly within 26 million miles of the sun.
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In other news, a British woman has told of her horror after scammers used photos of a “silver fox” politician to trick her out of £80,000.
Norfolk County Council is suing Apple over what it says was misleading information about iPhone sales.
The creators of a chilling new horror game say that the title is so disturbing they’ve been forced to censor it on PlayStation.
And, Apple has announced updates to AirTags following claims that the coin-sized tracking devices are being used to stalk people.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
