Explosion on the sun could affect radio

Satellites have recorded a huge blast of energy on the sun, which is so strong that it could affect radio communications on Earth.

The explosion, known as a solar flare, gave off large amounts of radiation. Although these flares aren’t powerful enough to harm people on Earth, they can knock out things like radio and GPS signals.

This latest flare was classified as an X6.9. X-class flares are the most powerful ones, and they are expected to become more common as the sun approaches its most energetic period, or maximum, in 2013. The sun has an 11-year cycle and the maximums can be bad news for communications on Earth, as well as being potentially dangerous for astronauts.

See a cool video that explains more about solar flares below!

 

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Transcript

Source: NASA

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