The Sun hates us. Well, not really us, because it’s a mindless ball of swirling hydrogen atoms being fused together in a million-degree maelstrom. But yeah, according to the news, this current solar flare is causing mayhem.To recap: Today the largest solar flare since 2005 is peaking. The electromagnetic radiation barfed out by the Sun certainly does cause problems. Any high-flying electronic bits that don’t have the full buffer of Earth’s magnetic field are susceptible to interference, so us regular folk can expect GPS and communications satellites to act all wonky today. That same radiation, when it blasts into our atmosphere with a violent electric charge, is also cause for awe: Without solar flares, auroras wouldn’t exist, leaving folks in the boring confines of extreme northern latitudes nothing to look for, and Wayne and Garth without a name for their Chicago suburb.The event that launched tons of charged particles from the surface of the Sun is called a coronal mass ejection, or CME. While CMEs happen fairly regularly, it’s rarer for a large one happens to shoot out in a path aimed for the Earth. People are bound to get worked up any time electric, radioactive material gets launched en masse towards our little planet. It also doesn’t help that MSNBC quotes a guy calling CMEs “space hurricanes” and Fox News has blamed cautionary plane re-routings on a “solar explosion,” which, although true in a sense, sounds more dramatic than necessary. The Sun didn’t blow up, folks. I guess saying that a giant already-burning ball experienced a small explosion 93 million miles away isn’t quite as exciting.Even Scientific American is mentioning flare-induced blackouts, which are theoretically possible, due to the concentrated blast of electromagnetic radiation hitting the Earth as we speak. But that’s thankfully countered by the Earth’s own magnetic field. The people who might have to worry are at northern latitudes because of that field’s weakened force around the poles. Still, that doesn’t mean the Sun is currently attacking us with an EMP weapon of the likes dreamed up by GoldenEye and Newt Gingrich, despite the fact that the Christian Science Monitor uses a question headline to suggest the U.S. grid is doomed.No, what a solar flare is going to hurt, even an epicly giant one like today’s, isn’t your home stereo. High altitude electronics, like those in satellites and planes, are likely to get taken out, which is why today’s not a good day to fly, and I wouldn’t expect any satellite dispatches on tonight’s news. But as far as getting rocked by a solar hurricane? I wouldn’t worry about it.
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