CANADA: On spotting the enormous solar flare on the star, KIC9655129, scientists speculate that our sun could produce a similar solar flare sufficient enough to destroy our blue planet. With the help of NASA’s Kepler space telescope, researchers at the University of Warwick have been able to spot the solar superflare in the star about 1,500 light-years away from Earth. Scientists said that the solar flare share properties similar to the flares seen on our sun. The main reason to worry regarding these enormous solar flares is that they could severely disrupt our GPS and radio communication systems.
Chloë Pugh, a researcher at Warwick’s Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, reported that disruption to GPS and radio communication satellites could result in large scale power blackouts because of strong electrical currents being induced in power grids. But, the good thing to note is that the previous studies indicate that the conditions needed for a superflare are extremely unlikely to occur on the Sun.
Normal-sized solar flares are capable of releasing energy equivalent to 100 million megaton bombs. But the energy released from a superflare trumps equivalent to 100 billion megaton bombs. Ms. In the study published in the Astrophysical Journal, scientists suggest our own sun may be capable of a superflare 1,000 times stronger than any previously recorded. Pugh reported that by studying the flares taking place on other stars could help scientists understand the processes taking place in our solar system. “Our solar system is filled with plasma, or ionised gas, originating from the Sun as a result of the solar wind and other more violent solar eruptions, such as solar flares”.
There would be need to determine whether the same physical processes are responsible for both stellar superflares and solar flares on sun. This would help scientists to know whether sun can produce catastrophic superflares. Analysis of solar flare patterns show the phenomena are often marked by regular pulses that resemble waves. The study of solar flare patterns is called coronal seismology. Scientists reported that sometimes solar flares feature multiple waves, called periodicities, the one spotted through the KIC9655129 star is an example of such solarflare.
