On Tuesday, the sun’s first major solar flare of the year emerged from a massive sunspot on the surface of our favourite star, known as AR1944 and described by NASA as "one of the largest sunspots seen in the last 10 years."
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The universe is putting on its own Thanksgiving Day light show in the form of Comet ISON, which is set to graze the sun tomorrow.
Assuming that the comet does not disintegrate under the pressure of strong gravitational forces or solar energy, it is set to be one of the most brilliant comets of this century.
The shining heavenly body will pass within 730,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) of the sun, which is a very close shave by cosmic standards. This fact does concern astronomers, many of whom predict that the comet may not survive its brush with the fiery star.
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In the early hours of Tuesday, August 20, a comet estimated to be only sixty to a hundred feet across dove into the sun, causing a huge solar explosion.
Just before the comet hit, a coronal mass ejection exploded off the sun’s surface. While there is no known reason that there would be a connection between a CME and the impact of a tiny comet, this has been observed before. The CME was emitted from the opposite side of the sun that was struck by the comet, and appears to have begun before the comet struck.
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In the year 775 AD, the sun didn’t just emit a large flare, it emitted something close to a superflare, and scientists who have been studying this mysterious and extremely dangerous phenomenon now believe that they understand what caused it, and the news is disturbing. In 775, auroras appeared in Europe after sunset that were recorded as ‘the sky catching fire.’ Strange phenomena were described such as serpents ‘as if they were sprng out of the ground,’ an apparent reference to plasma discharges taking place at ground level due to extreme amounts of electromagnetic energy being poured into the atmosphere.
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