150 'cosmic guns' simultaneously aimed straight at Earth

The " cosmic fires" that have just flashed within the field of view of NASA ships may soon "bombard" the Earth's magnetosphere in the next few days .

The flares were recorded on May 5 from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a spacecraft orbiting Earth's most active parent star.

It is expected that in the next few days, they will reach Earth and cause geomagnetic storms.

A solar flare explodes from the "cosmic gun" - (Photo: NASA).

According to the Space Weather Prediction Center of the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the levels of the fires are X1.3 and X1.2, respectively . Category X is the most powerful category on NOAA's scale for these solar eruptions.

Both originate from the active sunspot cluster AR 3663.

Sunspots on the parent star - easily seen in SDO observational data - are likened to " cosmic gun muzzles".

These are dark, relatively cool regions of the Sun's photosphere. They appear because the strong concentration of the Sun's magnetic field disrupts convection and reduces the temperature in that area.

In other words, it is an energetic bottleneck. At some point, the magnetic energy will "explode" forming flames or sometimes plasma balls called "coronal mass ejections" (CME).

When these energy bullets collide with the Earth's magnetosphere, they will create turbulence, or geomagnetic storms.

Humans cannot directly feel this geomagnetic storm - if anything, they can only see the accompanying aurora phenomenon in some areas near the North Pole - but radio systems, navigation devices, and satellites will be affected. affect.

Migratory birds can also lose their way for short distances. And in rare cases, very strong geomagnetic storms can cause power grid collapse in some places.

According to Science Alert , there are currently up to 9 sunspot clusters or regions - made up of 150 large and small sunspots - on the side of the Sun facing Earth.

However, AR 3663 seems to be the most active. It appeared on April 30 and has so far emitted 14 M-type (medium-strong) fires and 3 X-type fires.

It is expected that at least 1-2 more X-level fires will be released before this space gun turns away.

The Sun's increased strike on Earth is normal during the 11-year solar cycle, which is predicted to peak in 2024 or 2025 before returning to a quiescent phase.