14 DAY TRIAL // If you think the dragon in “The Hobbit” is pretty scary when it starts huffing and puffing and breathing out fire, rest assured: Smaug has got nothing on our good old Sun, especially when the star has its mind set on putting on a show.
Thus, researchers with NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States) say that, this past June 10, two major flares that occurred just minutes apart were documented on the Sun.
More precisely, the first solar flares peaked at about 7:42 a.m. EDT, whereas the second hit its maximum at 8:36 a.m. EDT, Space informs. NASA has managed to capture them on film, and the video is available below.
Despite the fact that they look pretty scary, solar flares are not a threat to us humans, meaning that they cannot physically harm us. They can, however, disrupt radio communication, specialists with the Administration say.
“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 explains.
Furthermore, “However, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.”
Since the beginning of 2014 until present day, a total of 7 such strong flares have been documented on the Sun.