Astronomers may have detected a Sun-like star erupting, spotting a giant outburst ten times larger than anything similar ever seen from our Sun. The new results may shed light on the effects such powerful outbursts may have had on the early Earth when life was born, and could have on modern Earth and society.
Our Sun often unleashes flares that can each pack as much energy as millions of hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time. Solar flares are often accompanied by giant, bright tendrils of solar plasma known as filaments, which can unleash magnetic bubbles of superhot plasma called coronal mass ejections that hurtle through space at very high speeds.
This story is from the Issue 126 edition of All About Space.
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This story is from the Issue 126 edition of All About Space.
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