All about the fiery explosions on the Sun - know what are solar flares and CME
Over the past few months, as the volatility of the Sun increases, solar flares have been in the news constantly. Do you know what they are and how can they affect us? The Sun has been putting on a dazzling display of its power, and it's only going to get more exciting as we approach the peak of Solar Cycle 25, expected around 2025. But what's all the fuss about? Well, the Sun has some incredible phenomena like solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), that can affect us here on Earth. They are said to even affect electric infrastructure on Earth.
Imagine the Sun as a giant cosmic firework show. Sun shoots out bursts of energy called solar flares, which are like spectacular explosions on its surface. According to ESA, these flares happen when energy stored in twisty magnetic fields above sunspots is suddenly let loose. These flares have the capacity to heat up stuff around them to millions of degrees and across the electromagnetic spectrum, they produce a burst of radiation.
Scientists categorise solar flares on the basis of their brightness in the X wavelengths.
X-class flares: These are big in size and they can have greater impacts. They're major events that can even mess with radio signals all over the world and create long-lasting radiation storms way high up in the sky on Earth.
M-class flares: They are medium-sized flares. They cause brief radio disturbances, mostly around Earth's polar regions. Sometimes they bring along minor radiation storms too.
C-class flares: These flares are the little ones. They're not very noticeable to us on Earth, kind of like small sparks in a firework display.
But that's not all. There's another player in this cosmic drama – coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These are like huge bubbles of
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