Solar Flares and Sunspots

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In the wake of the solar flare that hit earth on Thursday, I have started to have a lot of questions about sunspots and solar flares. In this article, I will attempt to answer some of these questions.
Question: What are sunspots?
Answer: Sunspots are areas of the sun that are cooler than the rest of the sun. They are less bright than the rest of the sun. They are caused by stronger areas of the sun’s electromagnetic field that are keeping the heat from the core of the sun from escaping to the surface.

Question: What is a solar flare?
Answer: A solar flare is a large amount of sun plasma that is ejected above the surface of the sun. Solar flares are created when lots of electromagnetic energy is released. They are usually high in radiation and occur on or near sunspots. The largest solar flare ever was the size of 35 earths.

Question: How are solar flares categorized?
Answer: The classes of sunspots are A, B, C, M, and X, with X being the biggest and A being the smallest. X class solar flares are very powerful and can take out power grids.

Question: What can powerful solar flares do?
Answer: Solar flares are very powerful and very dangerous. Fortunately for us here on Earth(I apologize to any alien reading this who is on a different planet), we have an atmosphere and a magnetic force field to protect us. If there was a human in space when a solar flare hit earth, they might be severely injured or die. The same may also happen to satellites. Even with these protective measures, when particularly powerful flares happen, power grids may go down and cell phones, GPS, and radios might experience interference.
Article By Aneesh Movva, Featured Blogger

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