Could The Sun Superflare? Study Reveals New Finding

Researchers found that the sun has the potential to superflare, according to a news release. If the sun were to superflare, it would cause a significant amount of damage to the Earth, by destroying communications and energy systems.

Superflares have been observed on various stars, where some superflares are thousands of times more powerful than the sun. Researchers predicted that the amount of energy generated from a superflare from the sun is equivalent to a 100 million megaton bombs.

"If the sun were to produce a superflare it would be disastrous for life on Earth; our GPS and radio communication systems could be severely disrupted and there could be large-scale power blackouts as a result of strong electrical currents being induced in power grids," Chloe Pugh, from the University of Warwick and lead author of the study, said in a news release.

The researchers have confirmed that the sun could produce one of the most powerful superflares. They researchers made the discovery using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, where they observed a superflare on a binary star called KIC9655129 - in the Milky Way. The researchers found wave patterns on KIC9655129 that were similar to the flares on the sun.

The superflare on KIC9655129 is similar to the flares on the sun's solar flares and they underlying physics of the flares may also be the same, according to the researchers.

 "Fortunately the conditions needed for a superflare are extremely unlikely to occur on the sun, based on previous observations of solar activity," Pugh said.

The findings of this study were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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