Scientists have discovered something disturbing about our sun. It turns out that it has the potential to release flares that are 1,000 times greater than previously recorded.
In this case, the researchers are taking about superflares. These flares are thousands of times more powerful than those ever recorded on the sun, and are frequently observed on some stars.
In this case, the researchers observed a star in the Milky Way galaxy. Called KIC9655129, the binary star is known to superflare. What's interesting, though, is that the superflares from this binary star have similarities to our own sun's solar flares. In fact, this supports the idea that our sun could also produce a superflare under the right conditions.
"Our solar system is filled with plasma, or ionized gas, originating from the sun as a result of the solar wind and other more violent solar eruptions, such as solar flares," said Chloe Pugh, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Stars very similar to the sun have been observed to produce enormous flares, called superflares. To give us a better indication of whether the sun could produce a catastrophic superflare, we need to determine whether the same physical processes are responsible for both stellar superflares and solar flares."
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