NASA is trying to make sure that no one is taking the 2012 doomsday nonsense seriously, and just put out this video today detailing how a gigantic “killer solar flare” just ain’t gonna happen. Dr. Alex Young from the Goddard Space Flight Center explains how the Sun’s regular 11-year solar cycle is expected to peak in 2013 and 2014, not on December 21 of this year. Plus, this current solar cycle has been kind of a dud as far as wild activity goes, and scientists are not expecting the peak of this cycle to even be as strong as the previous one, which was rather mild.
Solar prominence in H alpha, with Earth scale model. Credit: John Brady.
Not to mention, Earth’s atmosphere keeps us well protected here on Earth. The only thing we do have to be concerned with is how solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can damage satellites and even impact the power grid on Earth; additionally astronauts in Space to have to be specially protected as they are outside of the protection of the atmosphere.
You can get more information in our detailed article “2012: No Killer Solar Flare.”
Recent Posts
Two Stars in a Binary System are Very Different. It's Because There Used to be Three
A beautiful nebula in the southern hemisphere with a binary star at it's center seems…
The Highest Observatory in the World Comes Online
The history of astronomy and observatories is full of stories about astronomers going higher and…
Is the JWST Now an Interplanetary Meteorologist?
The JWST keeps one-upping itself. In the telescope's latest act of outdoing itself, it examined…
Solar Orbiter Takes a Mind-Boggling Video of the Sun
You've seen the Sun, but you've never seen the Sun like this. This single frame…
What Can AI Learn About the Universe?
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become ubiquitous, with applications ranging from data analysis, cybersecurity,…
Enceladus’s Fault Lines are Responsible for its Plumes
The Search for Life in our Solar System leads seekers to strange places. From our…