Massive sunspot turns to Earth. This can result in large solar flames that can affect electrical systems- Technology News, Firstpost

FP Trending07 Aug, 2020 17:36:48 IST

A massive sunspot on the sun is turning towards our planet and this could result in strong solar flames. The solar pot AR2770 was discovered earlier this week and is expected to grow in size in the coming days.

A report of SpaceWeather.com – a website for space water forecasting – said that several small torches were already emitted by the solar float when it looked at the earth. These torches have caused “small waves of ionization to ripple through the earth’s upper atmosphere”, but nothing important yet.

Solar flares are explosions on the surface of the sun that release an enormous amount of energy, equivalent to a trillion ‘Little Boy’ atomic bombs exploding at the same time. Image Credit: NASA

According to Space.com, sunspots are dark spots on the sun that are relatively colder than the rest of the star. These are formed as a result of interactions with the magnetic field of the sun. The intense magnetic activities lead to the release of a large amount of energy emitted in the form of solar flames and storms, known as coronal mass ejections (CME).

Although the whole mechanism is not yet understood, these spots appear on the photosphere region of the sun and can be enormous in size – up to 50,000 kilometers in diameter. While solar flames are enormous explosions on the sun, a CME is an ‘enormous bubble of plasma’ driven by the sun.

A clear picture of the AR2770 has also emerged that gives a better idea in the current phenomenon. It was taken prisoner by a amateur astronomer Martin Wise from Trenton, Florida. The size of the “primary dark core” is about as wide as Mars and it has several “spotlets” on its surface, which are similar to the craters on the surface of the moon.

According to the report in International Business Times, Wise conquered the dark sun with the help of an 8-inch telescope with safe sun filters and its dimensions make this sun “one of the largest solar float groups of the current Solar Minimum.”

As the site grows and rotates toward the earth, the torches can grow in impact and electrical operations and facilities can affect size.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), strong solar storms can “cause fluctuations of electric currents in space and trigger electrons and protons in the Earth’s alternating magnetic field”. These events can affect radio communications, GPS (GPS) connectivity, power grids and satellites.