Superflares Are Not Possible

November 11, 2011

Says NASA:

Given a legitimate need to protect Earth from the most intense forms of space weather – great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can sometimes stream from the sun – some people worry that a gigantic “killer solar flare” could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth. Citing the accurate fact that solar activity is currently ramping up in its standard 11-year cycle, there are those who believe that 2012 could be coincident with such a flare.

But this same solar cycle has occurred over millennia. Anyone over the age of 11 has already lived through such a solar maximum with no harm. In addition, the next solar maximum is predicted to occur in late 2013 or early 2014, not 2012.

I’m hardly surprised that the doomsday prophecies based on Mayan calendars continue to be refuted, but it is curious that there isn’t even enough energy in the Sun to cause a deadly superflare like the one in Knowing. We’ll just have to wait until the Sun itself explodes, I suppose.

more/via NASA