A mid-level flare erupted on the left side of the sun on July 8, 2014. This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory highlights the high-temperature solar material in a flare, which is typically colorized in teal.

My Comment: We are told to keep an eye on the skies as there will be signs of our Saviour’s return……

(Matthew 24:29)……….The strength of God’s people will be seen as they will not be shaken as other’s, but remain strong in the Lord….(Hebrews 12:25-29). God Rule’s.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which observes the sun 24 hours a day, captured this image of a solar flare on June 10.

NASA captured this second flare, which appears as a bright flash on the left side of the sun, June 10.

A coronal hole, almost square in its shape, is one of the most noticeable features on the sun on May 5-7, 2014. A coronal hole is an area where high-speed solar wind streams into space. It appears dark in extreme ultraviolet light as there is less material to emit in these wavelengths. Inside the coronal hole you can see bright loops where the hot plasma outlines little pieces of the solar magnetic field sticking above the surface. Because it is positioned so far south on the sun, there is less chance that the solar wind stream will impact us here on Earth.

A large active region is giving off warning signs that this could be the source of powerful solar storms. It has already shot off two smaller flares (Jan. 2, 2014) as shown here in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

This image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun on July 12, 2012 during an X1.4 class flare. The image is captured in the 304 Angstrom wavelength, which is typically colorized in red.

This image combines two sets of observations of the sun on July 12, 2012 from the SDO to give an impression of what the sun looked like shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare.

A very large filament became unstable and erupted June 27, 2012 as seen by the STEREO Ahead spacecraft in a wavelength of extreme UV light.

Active Region 1514 just could not contain itself as it popped off over a dozen flashes, minor eruptions, and flares over almost two days June 27-29, 2012.

Two areas of dark plasma that were close together danced and entwined with each other over a one-day period March 27-28, 2012. The dark plasma, seen in profile, was somewhat cooler and therefore darker than the material around it.

This close-up view of a prominence reveals magnetic forces at work as they pull plasma strands this way and that before it gradually breaks away from the sun over a one-day period November 14-15, 2011.

Sunspots, which are cooler, darker areas of intense magnetic activity, are most often the source of solar storms. If we take the observations of the sun’s lower atmosphere in extreme ultraviolet light July 17-18, 2011.

 

(CNN) — “Here comes the sun” indeed, and it was just barely all right.

Two years ago, modern infrastructure came very close to a serious disruption. The culprit? One of the largest solar storms in recorded history.

Plasma exploding from the surface of the sun in a coronal mass ejection barreled through space and crossed through Earth’s orbital path on July 23, 2012.

If the flare had erupted about one week earlier, Earth would have been squarely in the line of fire, Daniel N. Baker wrote in a study published in the journal Space Weather. (Baker is with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado).

The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the sun during a flare that peaked at 7:44 a.m. ET on July 5, 2012.

This is not the first time solar activity has threatened Earth.

A massive solar storm in 1859, dubbed the Carrington Event after the English astronomer who witnessed it, caused the northern lights to appear as far south as Cuba; and it caused telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to a number of buildings, according to Science@NASA editor Dr. Tony Phillips. Read more.