Tour: Super Flares

The long relationships between stars and the planets around them — including the Sun and the Earth — may be even more complex than previously thought. This is one of the conclusions from a new study involving thousands of stars using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. By conducting the largest survey ever of star-forming regions in X-rays, a team of researchers has helped outline the link between very powerful flares, or outbursts, from youthful stars, and the impact they could have on planets in orbit. This work tells astronomers how the Sun may have acted and potentially affected the young Earth billions of years ago. The scientists examined Chandra’s X-ray data of more than 24,000 stars in 40 different regions where stars are forming. Today, our Sun is constantly active, giving off flares of different sizes and intensities depending on where it is in its 11-year solar cycle. Sometimes a particularly powerful solar storm will directly impact Earth by knocking out communications satellit