Here Comes the Sun

On May 20, Sunday, much of the United States was treated to an annular solar eclipse when the Moon gets directly between the Earth and the Sun. There is another interaction with the sun, however, that holds the potential for tremendous harm and solar scientists are warning we could be in for one as a cycle of such flares is peaking. The Sun gives off solar flares all the time, but they rarely are noticed or impact the Earth because our atmosphere serves as a kind of cocoon—the magnetosphere—that deflects these bursts of electromagnetic energy. A large flare is ten times the amount of energy released by a volcanic eruption, something along the lines of millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time, but is less than one-tenth of the total energy emitted by the Sun every second.