Solar Flares

 Solar Flares

May 17, 2021

Welcome back to take off to another space adventure. I am so happy😃😄 I made it to the 10th post today. Thank you everyone for your support and lovely comments😊, that's what keeps me going.😉 Well, I am also really sorry for not posting for a week because I really didn't get time. I know vacation has started but that's in school, in tuitions still tests were going on so I was really occupied in that stuff. Now, I do have a vacation in my tuitions but still, a lot of schoolwork and activities are left so I will be posting every Sunday.

Though I have completed my 10 posts I think it's fun to research the most intriguing topics and share them with your friends. 

So today we will talk about Solar Flares. Sunspots were observed as far back as 364 B.C. by astronomers in ancient China.

 From afar it seems like the Sun is equally bright no matter where you look from but, that is not the case if you look closely at the surface of the Sun you will see some areas darker than the others. and sometimes you might even see sudden bursts of brightness on the surface of the Sun. These are what we call Sunspots and Solar Flares. 

Sun is a dense cloud of bright and hot gases, it holds immense pressure within itself and sometimes this pressure becomes too much so the Sun has to let go of some of its energy. When the sun does this some areas on the surface become even brighter. These bright areas are called solar flares. And they disappear very suddenly.

Solar flares usually take place around the active parts of the sun's surface such as the sunspots. These are the areas of high magnetic activity on the surface of the sun.  Although they produce light that is not as bright as the area around it, ergo the sunspot appears darker, they are actually cooler than the rest of the sun.

When solar flares occur it also releases different kinds of energy particles like Electromagnetic energy, electrons, ions, etc. These particles usually reach the earth in around a day or two but they don't harm us because we are protected by the atmosphere of the earth and its electromagnetic field.

An interesting fact: The sunspots were even used in ancient times to figure out that the sun rotates. When people looked at the sun they noticed the spots change and realized that the sun must be rotating.

Auroras popularly known as the Northern Lights are caused by solar flares (solar wind) hitting the earth's atmosphere.

Now, wasn't this interesting, who knew so much was going on,on the surface of the sun, just as they say don't judge a book by its cover. So, let's keep our binoculars ready, who knows what you might find. 

 

Hey there! I hope you like this short post. And I will be surely posting every Sunday.