14 DAY TRIAL // Just yesterday, the news broke that, on June 10, two massive flares were documented on the Sun. Fast forward a few hours, and it is my pleasure to inform you that, come June 11, our star experienced yet another burst of radiation.
As previously reported, the first flare occurred at 7:42 a.m. EDT, and the second one followed shortly after, at 8:36 EDT. Hence, astronomers are referring to these bursts as back-to-back events.
According to EurekAlert, the third flare reached its peak brightness early in the morning at 5:06 a.m. EDT. Interestingly enough, this third burst occurred in the same region of the Sun as the other two.
Folks at NASA (or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States, if you prefer) snapped images of all three of these flares with the help of its Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Some of these images were shared with the public and are available above. Rest assured, you are not the only one feeling that your jaw will drop and roll on the floor if you continue staring at them.
Although they have the potential to interfere with radio communications and GPS signals, solar flares are not a threat to humans, NASA specialists wish to stress.
“Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground,” researcher Karen Fox says.
“However, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel,” the NASA researcher adds.