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A solar flare slammed into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, causing radio blackouts, while a second is set to hit the Earth on Tuesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a geomagnetic storm watch on Monday, monitoring two large solar flares ejecting from the sun. Both left the sun on Sunday, the first hitting over the Pacific on Monday, while the second is projected to make contact on Tuesday. Despite the cosmic proportions of the event, NOAA said citizens shouldn’t be concerned. Some minor inconveniences could occur, such as minor power grid interruptions or an impact on radios, aviation...

Another apocalyptic conspiracy theory is going around on TikTok — but there’s a simple answer to it. The online panic started when a video of Friedrich Merz, a German politician, posted to Twitter saying, “Dear Colleagues…September 24, 2022, will be remembered by all of us as a day which we will say, ‘I remember exactly where I was.’ “ The remark sparked several conspiracy theories of things going wrong that day, including that a big solar flare would hit the earth and create tropical cyclones resulting in mass destruction, according to Middle East Mashable.

According to space and weather experts, a recent development regarding the appearance of two new sunspots on the Sun has sparked a wave of concern, with the expectation that a global blackout can be hitting the Earth anytime soon. The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) has recently issued a warning about an upcoming solar storm, which can cause major electricity and signal blackouts soon. This comes as two unstable sunspots are visible on the side of the Sun which is facing the earth. According to experts, a solar storm sparked by a massive solar flare explosion on Earth can...

A medium-intensity solar flare hit the Earth's magnetosphere in the early hours of Monday, Spaceweather.com reported. It is unlikely that a coronal discharge will follow the solar activity, and if it does, whether will head toward Earth. The recent solar flare came from the sunspot AR 3141, which has grown in size in the past 24 hours, EarthSky.org said in its report. The eruption was classified as an M5.2, even where M denotes the class of solar flares and is a medium-intensity eruption. In comparison, classes A, B, and C are low-intensity events, while Class X flares are wildly the...

Large swathes of Bangladesh were left without electricity on Tuesday after a grid failure, a government official said, adding that authorities were working to gradually restore power supply in the country of 168 million people. The country's power grid malfunctioned at around 2 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Tuesday, leading to blackouts across 75-80% of the Bangladesh, Bangladesh Power Development Board official Shameem Hasan told ReuteAn investigation was underway to ascertain the reason for the grid's collapse and power had been restored in 45% of the regions hit by the blackouts, he said. Bangladesh, which gets three quarters of its electricity...

Dhaka (AFP) – At least 130 million people in Bangladesh were left without power on Tuesday after a grid failure caused widespread blackouts, the government's power utility company said. Bangladesh has suffered a major power crisis in recent months as a result of higher global energy prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and has imposed regular cuts to conserve electricity. But it remained unclear what caused Tuesday's unscheduled blackout, which hit more than 80 percent of the country shortly after 2:00 pm (0800 GMT), according to the Power Development Board. Apart from some locations in Bangladesh's northwest, "the rest of...

The solar flare, a powerful X1 (the mildest form of the strongest category of flares) erupted from the sun on Sunday at 3:53 p.m. EDT (1953 GMT) and peaked about 30 minutes later. Since solar flares travel at the speed of light, the burst of electromagnetic radiation caused an immediate radio blackout up to an hour long on the sun-facing side of the planet. The affected region included the whole of the U.S., according to the SpaceWeatherWatch(opens in new tab). The radio blackout, classed by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a strong R3 category, likely affected...

The solar flare, classified as M8 in the second-most energetic category of flares, departed from the sun at 5:49 a.m. EDT (0949 GMT) on Friday, disrupting shortwave radio communications in the sun-facing parts of the world. According to Spaceweather.com(opens in new tab), amateur radio operators in Africa and the Middle East could have experienced signal distortion for up to one hour after the flare. The U.K. space weather forecaster Met Office predicts there is a chance of further flares today before the sunspot AR3098 disappears behind the sun's limb (the edge of the sun's visible disk). Space weather forecasters think...

The Sun has been up to some pretty intense shenanigans lately, but a recent eruption on the far side looks to be absolute science gold. On the evening of September 5 GMT, an enormous coronal mass ejection (CME) was recorded exploding on the far side of the Sun, sending a radiation storm out across the Solar System. It was a type known as a halo CME, in which an expanding halo of hot gas can be seen spewing out around the entire Sun. Sometimes this means that the CME is headed straight for Earth. However, this eruption was on the...

Yet another series of solar flares(opens in new tab) series shimmied out from the sun on Friday (Aug. 26) after a dazzling show of green-hued auroras(opens in new tab) crashed through the atmosphere just days ago. "Sunspot AR3089 is crackling with a series of intensifying M-class [moderate] solar flares," SpaceWeather.com(opens in new tab) said in a Friday update. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an especially powerful flare at 7:16 a.m. EDT (1116 GMT) as populations in Europe and Africa experienced a brief radio blackout. A huge ejection of charged particles from the sun(opens in new tab), known as a coronal...

The sunspot, known as AR3085, has also been shooting off several minor solar flares, though nothing strong enough to be disruptive on Earth. The sunspot, known as AR3085, has also been shooting off several minor solar flares, though nothing strong enough to be disruptive on Earth. Sunspots are regions on the sun where magnetic fields are so intense that some heat is prevented from reaching the sun's surface. As such, sunspots may appear as dark patches. Due to the intense magnetic fields, sunspots are known sources of solar activity. When these magnetic field lines suddenly shift, a vast amount of...

One of those bursts, called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, is expected to collide and consume another, creating what's called a cannibal CME event. According to The Weather Channel, these events can spark strong geomagnetic storms — and in this case, it's headed in our direction. NOAA expects that the CMEs will hit on Thursday, but before they do, the agency said that Earth will also be blasted on Wednesday with relatively fast solar winds, known as a recurrent coronal hole high speed stream. The solar winds alone could trigger a minor geomagnetic storm on Wednesday, but those conditions...

The sun has spat out two clouds of plasma in the past two days, which might trigger beautiful aurora displays observable much farther south than usual. The two coronal mass ejections (CMEs), eruptions of charged particles from the sun's upper atmosphere known as the corona, burst from the sun on Aug. 14 and 15 respectively, according to the U.K. forecaster Met Office (opens in new tab). As the CMEs cross the 900,000-mile (150 million kilometers) distance between the star and our planet, they might cannibalize each other, according to SpaceWeather.com (opens in new tab), creating a single super powerful CME....

A MINOR solar storm struck Earth over the weekend, sparking displays of the Northern Lights in the Arctic. The storm was caused by a volley of radiation known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), according to space weather trackers. “Forecasters aren't sure why. The prime suspect is an unexpected CME embedded in the solar wind." G1 storms can cause weak power grid fluctuations and have minor impacts on satellite communications. “Expect unsettled to stormy conditions for the next 48-72 hrs. “High latitude #aurora chasers should get good shows with sporadic views at mid-latitudes.

Did you know that Kansas is known as “the Wheat State”? In 2021, it produced nearly one-fourth of all wheat that was harvested in the United States. Needless to say, we really need Kansas to come up big again this year because the war in Ukraine and a number of other factors have combined to bring us to the precipice of an absolutely horrifying global food crisis. Unfortunately, things are not going well in Kansas this year. In fact, wheat crops in much of the state are failing on a massive scale… This time of year, the wheat growing in...

The sunspot that has been growing in size recently is known as AR3038. Footage from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on Sunday shows how the sunspot has evolved over the past day or so, twisting and contorting. "Yesterday, sunspot AR3038 was big. Today, it's enormous," reads the SpaceWeather.com website. "The fast-growing sunspot has doubled in size in only 24 hours." The magnetic field associated with the sunspot means it could potentially send an M-class solar flare at Earth—the second-strongest type. However, it is not known whether this will be the case. As of Monday morning the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's...

A HUGE sunspot which doubled in size over a 24-hour period is now directly facing Earth, meaning a large solar flare could strike the planet. The sunspot, known as AR3038, doubled in size between Sunday and Monday night. Now, it has turned to face the Earth, sparking concerns that rapid solar winds could pelt towards the Blue Planet. And stunning footage from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on Sunday shows how the huge sunspot has been evolving. Experts at Spaceweather.com explained: "Yesterday, sunspot AR3038 was big. "Today, it's enormous. The fast-growing sunspot has doubled in size in only 24 hours. "AR3038...

The sun flexed its considerable magnetic muscles today (June 13), and two solar spacecraft captured the show on video. Earth's star unleashed a long-duration solar flare early this morning, blasting high-energy radiation into space for about three hours. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which has been studying the sun from Earth orbit since 2010, observed the dramatic event in multiple wavelengths. The flare registered as an M3.4, putting it in the "medium" class of solar outburst. It was strong enough, however, to cause temporary radio blackouts(opens in new tab) in the Asia-Pacific region here on Earth. (Scientists put powerful solar...

Amplified aurora displays are possible if a coronal mass ejection of charged particles emerges from the "mixed-up" sunspot AR3006, which pointed its flaring blast toward Earth Tuesday (May 10) at 9:55 a.m. EDT (1355 GMT). The flare was caught on camera by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and spurred a radio emission alert by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), amid a reported shortwave radio blackout in the Atlantic Ocean region. AR3006's polarity is the reverse of what scientists are expecting, which makes the sunspot "interesting and dangerous," SpaceWeather.com stated. (Sunspot polarity is governed by the current solar cycle.) "If...

The worst of this one will miss us, but it is a hint of what's to come. The eruption came from a sunspot on the western limb of our local star, and represents the most powerful solar flare seen since 2017. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed the blast at 8:57 p.m. PT on Tuesday, causing a radio blackout for certain shortwave, aviation and other communications centered on Asia. The flare was classified as an X2.2. X-class flares are the strongest category measured by scientists, and higher numbers following the X represent an increase in the power of the eruption. NASA...