“A HUGE solar storm is heading towards Earth which could leave us without mobile phones, satellite TV and even electricity,” Sean Martin reports for The Express. “Solar storms affect Earth’s technology as radiation is thrown at the planet from the Sun. While humans are protected from the radiation by the atmosphere, the rays can heat the outer atmosphere, causing it to expand which can affect satellites in orbit. That could lead to a lack of GPS navigation, mobile phone signal and satellite TV.”
“Furthermore, higher currents in the magnetosphere – the Earth’s magnetic field – could lead to a surge of electricity in power lines, which can blow out electrical transformers and power stations leading to a temporary loss of electricity in a region – although this usually only occurs in areas that are in high altitude,” Martin reports. “The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says a coronal hole has opened on the Sun, leading to a stream of solar particles hurtling towards Earth.”
“As a result, Earth is expected to be hit by a swarm of particles in the coming days which, on a better note, could cause the Northern Lights to be visible,” Martin reports. “Mauro Messerotti, from the University of Trieste the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) warned that the hole ‘extends for about 30 per cent of the disk of the sun’ and that the structure ‘may persist for more than a month because these holes sometimes last for more than one full rotation of the sun, which lasts 28 days.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: See you on the other side! 😉