A new study published this week in the journal Nature Communications theorizes that a superflare blast from the sun could potentially be “devastating” on our planet.
The chances of superflares, or significant explosions on stellar surfaces, were once thought to be next to impossible, but the study theorizes that those chances might not be that impossible after all. Should a superflare take place on the sun, it could cripple radio communication, result in widespread power outages, and make our atmosphere unstable. All told, the potential consequences are very “frightening,” according to the researchers.
The most significant solar eruption took place in 1859, when Earth was bombarded by hot plasma emanating from the sun. Astronomers captured this event on September 1 of that year, and noted how one of the sun’s dark spots abruptly lit up and started shining down brightly over its surface. The day later, the first particles from this superflare had reached the Earth, marking what scientists had dubbed the “Carrington Event.” Telegraph systems were disrupted and Earth’s ozone layer was damaged, as the event’s impact was felt as far south as what we now know as Cuba and Hawaii. Superflares, however, may be 10,000 times stronger than the Carrington Event, if they take place on certain stars in our universe.
“The magnetic fields on the surface of stars with superflares are generally stronger than the magnetic fields on the surface of the sun,” explained lead researcher Christopher Karoff from Aarhus University in Denmark. “ This is exactly what we would expect if superflares are formed in the same way as solar flares.”
Karoff and his fellow researchers believe that it is still unlikely that the sun would create a superflare. But the team did come up with a shocking discovery as detailed on their study. About 10 percent of the stars they analyzed had a magnetic field as strong as, or weaker than the sun’s magnetic field. This means it’s not unconceivable, though still very unlikely, that our sun could emit superflares. But if it does, this might not just mean catastrophic effects on electronic equipment, but also on our atmosphere and maybe even life as we know it.
“We certainly did not expect to find superflare stars with magnetic fields as week as the magnetic fields on the sun,” Karoff added. “This opens the possibility that the sun could generate a superflare – a very frightening thought.”