Earth to be hit by devastating solar flare which will be equal to billions of atomic bombs, warn scientists

Scientists have warned that a devastating solar superflare is overdue on Earth, which can be more powerful than billions of atomic bombs when it hits the planet.

The most accurate study done so far has explained that these superflares can wipe out satellites and power grids.

As per the researchers, these disastrous events happen to occur once every 100 years and not once every 1,000 to 10,000 as was believed earlier.

The study has hinted that Earth is likely to be hit by a solar flare which will release at least one octillion joules of energy.

This can be 100 times stronger than the 1859 Carrington Event in which the telegraph network collapsed and the sheets of paper lying in offices were also ignited.

If Earth is hit by such a powerful event, it can be more devastating because of the world’s increased dependence on satellite communication networks.

The superflare would impact in such a way that the power grids would be overloaded, satellites would be knocked out of orbit, global communication networks would be silenced and aircraft would be grounded around the world.

The Max Planck Institute’s co-author Dr Natalie Krivova said, “The new data are a stark reminder that even the most extreme solar events are part of the sun’s natural repertoire.”

Since modern observation records of the radiation of the sun have been available since the space age began, it has been difficult to predict how often these superflares occur.

An international team of researchers, headed by the Max Planck Institute (MPI), are trying to find answers in the stars.

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Director of the MPI and co-author of the study Dr Sami Solanki said, “We cannot observe the sun over thousands of years. Instead, however, we can monitor the behaviour of thousands of stars very similar to the sun over short periods of time.”

The data was recorded by scientists from 56,450 Earth-like stars which were observed by NASA’s Kepler telescope between 2009 and 2014.

In the observation, the researchers saw 2,889 superflares on 2,527 observed stars and concluded that a superflare occurs roughly once every century.

MPS first author Dr Valeriy Vasilyev said, “We were very surprised that sun-like stars are prone to such frequent superflares.” 

(With inputs from agencies)