Traveling at 2.5 million miles per hour.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BANGALORE: Scientists have warned that a powerful solar flare is heading towards earth, but people don’t have to worry much as it might just glance at the planet without causing much trouble.
Tom Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado told the Associated Press that a solar storm of this magnitude has not struck earth for quite some years. He added that solar activity on the sun was potentially strong to affect the earth but, fortunately, the harmful plasma materials will miss our planet and arrive as a less potential solar storm.
According to Berger, the new calculations from the satellite reveal that the harmful rays from the sun will go north or above the earth.
Solar flare also known as solar storm are charged energy particles moving at high speed after massive explosions in sunspots due to solar activity.
A high-intensity solar flare can cause radiation hazards to astronauts and satellites. If the solar flare hit the earth’s atmosphere it could result in total or partial disruption of all telecommunication and electronic instruments.
As the impending solar storm pass the earth’s atmosphere, it’s likely to cause fluctuations in the power grid, but will not knock it off because the worst will be heading to other parts of the solar system missing our earth.
Berger has also warned that earth stations might witness slight disturbances in satellite and radio transmission during the time of the solar flare.
Berger said, “We’re not scared of this one,”
The solar storm is currently moving at a speed of 2.5 million miles per hour and is expected to reach earth’s atmosphere early on Friday.
The most powerful solar storm to hit earth was on September 1, 1859. This storm popularly known as ‘Solar Storm of 1859’ was visible through naked eye and produced stunning aura near areas surrounding Cuba and Hawaii. Even though, there were less electronic instruments in the 19th century than today, this solar flare set telegraph systems in many places on fire.