A strong geomagnetic storm that was racing from the Sun hit the Earth Thursday without any noticeable effect.
Scientists say that five or six much more powerful solar storms could be expected in next 18 months.
According to an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, the Sun is on the ascendant phase of its 11-year cycle of solar activity, with the peak expected next year, Harlan Spence said. It's a clear harbinger that the Sun is waking up.
The sun actually goes through an 11-year cycle, so it has period of high activity and low activity. And we're just ramping up now to a period of high activity. Although this storm hasn't caused any damage, there are more to come and they could be more powerful, scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock told The Telegraph.
Although this storm hasn't caused any damage, there are more to come and they could be more powerful, he said.
Check out the images of solar flares, Coronal Mass Ejection and Southern Lights, taken from the space.
Photograph taken by George Simnet, a solar physicist at the University of Birmingham and released March 4 by Britain's Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), shows the Sun "sneezing" a huge bubble of hydrogen gas, as seen by the SOHO explorer, a joint NASA-European Space Agency project. A similar flare knocked out AT&T's Telstar 401 television relay satellite on January 11, ruining viewing for millions of people. ReutersThe crew of Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Frank De Winne of Belgium is scheduled to take off to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 27. ReutersA fisherman casts his line as the sun sets on the outskirts of Havana July 25, 2011. ReutersA plane flies past a setting sun near the Songshan airport in Taipei July 20, 2009. ReutersThe new twin spacecraft are already helping scientists track pesky solar storms from the sun to Earth, where they can disrupt satellites, communications and sometimes the electricity supply, the U.S. space agency said on March 1, 2007. ReutersThis was the largest flare in over four years. The coronagraph shows the faint edge of a "halo" coronal mass ejection (CME).ReutersNASA handout image shows the Sun acquired by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on March 8, 2012.ReutersSunquakes caused by eruptions of magnetic field and charged particlesReutersThis flare was categorized as an X5.4, making it the second largest flare -- after an X6.9 on August 9, 2011 -- since the sun's activity segued into a period of relatively low activity called solar minimum in early 2007. The current increase in the number of X-class flares is part of the sun's normal 11-year solar cycle, during which activity on the sun ramps up to solar maximum, which is expected to peak in late 2013. ReutersThe large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface. Power supplies, air traffic control, communications and satellites can all be disrupted by storms. ReutersThis flare was categorized as an X5.4, making it the second largest flare -- after an X6.9 on August 9, 2011 -- since the sun's activity segued into a period of relatively low activity called solar minimum in early 2007. The current increase in the number of X-class flares is part of the sun's normal 11-year solar cycle, during which activity on the sun ramps up to solar maximum, which is expected to peak in late 2013. ReutersThe cloud, known to astronomers as a coronal mass ejection, is the one of the strongest ever detected since scientists started measuring these phenomena a quarter-century ago. When that cloud of particles gets here, perhaps by midday Wednesday, it could have severe effects, such as affecting some modern electronics and navigation equipment. ReutersThe flare is shown here in teal as that is the color typically used to show light in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength in which it is easy to view solar flares. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on January 22, 2012, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM. Reuters The cloud, known to astronomers as a coronal mass ejection, is the one of the strongest ever detected since scientists started measuring these phenomena a quarter-century ago. When that cloud of particles gets here, perhaps by midday Wednesday, it could have severe effects, such as affecting some modern electronics and navigation equipment. ReutersA filament on the left side became unstable and erupted, while an M-1 flare and a coronal mass ejection on the right blasted into space. ReutersAuroral activity results from atomic particles spiralling into the earth's north and south polar atmosphere along magnetic field lines and then colliding with atmospheric molecules, resulting in the emission of energy in different forms including light. Four solar flares and a pair of powerful magnetic gas clouds spawned in a monster sunspot are believed to have produced this dazzling display. ReutersNOAA handout image shows the Sun's activity on March 8, 2012. Reuters
