Solar flare eruptions likely soon, but solar storms not seen hitting Earth over the weekend

Asus TUF F15 | RTX 4070 | Intel Core i7 12700H | 15-inch | 144Hz | 1080p | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 1TB SSD | $1,399.99$1,099.99 at Best Buy (save $300)The TUF range of laptops from Asus is its more value-oriented range, but they're still solid machines and when they're this price, with this level of spec, they're hard to ignore. This is the cheapest I've seen an RTX 4070 laptop on sale for, and your only real compromise is the last-gen CPU and memory combo… which isn't much of a compromise for a gaming laptop.

On Monday, October 16, a powerful magnetic filament erupted on the Sun. In particular, the explosion of plasma took place on the active sunspot AR3467, which was earlier reported to have displayed signs of trapping a huge amount of delta energy. The eruption was so massive that it ejected solar matter and plasma into space, which is also known as coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME is now moving in the direction of Earth. While NASA models have assured that a direct hit is unlikely at this point, it is expected to sideswipe the planet, which is still enough to spark a solar storm. The storm is expected to arrive tomorrow, October 19.

Yeyian Gaming Desktop | Core i5 12400F | Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 1TB SSD | $999.99$899.99 at WalmartFor the price that we've only seen RTX 4060 machines discounted down to, here we've got a full RTX 4060 Ti build for less than $900. The Ti delivers gaming performance between the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, but with an extra fps boost in the shape of Frame Generation in the games that support it. The Intel CPU is a couple generations old now, but is still an excellent six-core, 12-thread chip, happily supporting both 16GB of DDR4 and that 1TB SSD.

Like asteroids, solar flares also pose a threat to Earth. Strong solar flares can cause power and radio blackouts for several hours or even days, spark auroras, give people in airplanes a dose of radiation and can even influence elections! Technological instruments are especially at a risk during flares. This is because when cosmic rays strike Earth, they release various particles like energetic neutrons, muons, pions and alpha particles. Although these particles do not affect the human body, they can pass-through integrated circuits and cause damage, often changing the data stored in the memory. With the solar maximum approaching in the next few years, the Sun's activity is expected to rise, and it could result in more solar flares.

It’s been a busy week in the gaming industry, with big game releases, a new PS5 and, after months of to-ing and fro-ing, Microsoft finally completed their acquisition of Activision Blizzard to the tune of $68.7 billion!

Yesterday, it was reported that a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) was forming near the magnetosphere of the Earth due to the intermixing of slow and fast-moving solar winds. The situation is set to worsen today, October 13, as fresh solar winds escaping from a worm-like coronal hole will soon strike the Earth and trigger a powerful solar storm event. This event is expected to take place just before the annular solar eclipse occurs in the early hours of October 14.

The first big patch for the fighting game on Nintendo's system addresses performance, visuals, and more.

The Earth this month has seen quite a few impacts due to the solar activities on the Sun, including a couple of solar flare eruptions and consequent radio blackouts, but so far we have not seen any solar storm events. But that is expected to change later today, October 12, as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast has revealed that our planet is likely to be hit by a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) that can spark a solar storm event. Know the likely impact of this solar storm, and why events like CIR occur.

If you've been curious about the recent surge in solar activity, it's important to understand that scientists have forecast the upcoming peak of the current solar cycle for mid-2025. This peak, referred to as the Solar Maximum, signifies the period when solar activity reaches its zenith within the 12-year cycle. This also explains the occurrence of two distinct solar flare events in the last 24 hours, both of which resulted in radio blackouts on Earth. And now, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has spotted a troublesome sunspot with a strong delta charge that can explode anytime and hurl an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) to spark intense solar storm activity.

Despite multiple close calls, we have been quite lucky when it comes to solar storms. Even as multiple solar flares have erupted over the last 10 days, only one released a coronal mass ejection (CME) that made its way to the Earth. However, things can now change with the latest eruption that took place in the sunspot region AR3452. The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory detected the eruption, and as per reports, it took place on the eastern limb of the Sun. If there was any CME directed towards the Sun, there would be another solar storm event in the next 48 hours.

There's going to be a beefier GeForce RTX 4080 on its way in the first few months of 2024, so is the latest graphics card rumour on the social grapevine. The name, Super or Ti, has yet to be decided but it's supposed to be using a cut-down version of the AD102 GPU, that's the GPU currently powering the RTX 4090. Power limit is supposed to be less than 450W and the price range is similar to the RTX 4080's.

The Sun's activity is expected to increase in the coming months as we approach the Solar Maximum, the period in the solar cycle where activity is at its peak. It is expected to arrive in 2024 or 2025, and the number of sunspots has already exceeded previous predictions. During this peak, the planet could face CMEs, solar flares, solar storms, and other particles with potentially disastrous consequences. In a new development, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which carries a full suite of instruments to observe the Sun, has recently revealed that Earth could be in the firing line of a sunspot and dangerous solar flares could be hurled out that could have the potential to wreak havoc.