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Massive Solar Flare Larger Than Earth Subsides, No Longer a Threat

The massive solar flare, which erupted on Saturday causing a beautiful light show over parts of the Northern Hemisphere, is no longer posing an imminent threat to the Earth.

“That whole effect from this whole storm has passed,” Jeffrey Newmark, a solar physicist with NASA’s Washington DC headquarters said to The Christian Post.

Newmark compares the sun’s weather pattern to that of the Earth’s.

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As meteorologists would forecast hurricanes, NASA is hard at work to develop ways to track magnetic storm patterns on the sun.

And although these solar flares can affect a number of things including astronauts in space, satellites and power systems, they pose no serious threat to people walking the Earth.

“Nothing is going to effect the planted that is like a Hollywood style catastrophe,” said Newman.

Back in 1989, particles emitted from a solar storm caused a blackout on the planet.

“Particles can induce currents in the ground and create power glitches,” said Newman.

According to Newman, the sun emits powerful plasma blasts during a solar storm which crash into the Earth’s magneto sphere which protects the surface of the planet from any serious damage.

And even though this major flare that was several times the size of the Earth has subsided, this type of solar activity should continue for the next two years.

“We expect them to happen more frequently as solar activity peaks up,” said Newman.

NASA’s main goal is to discover how these flares begin.

“Our role is to understand the sun,” he added.

Newman stated that this is a science the space agency hopes to master so it can measure a solar flare’s activity and predict when it will begin along with its impact.

Experts at NASA expect this solar activity to increase until the year 2013.

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