THE fear that a “superflare” from the Sun will annihilate all life on Earth
has suddenly receded. “We think such flares are triggered by giant planets
orbiting close to a star,” says Eric Rubenstein of Yale University in New Haven,
Connecticut. “Since we don’t have one in our Solar System, we should be OK.”
Astronomers have seen superflares—huge bursts of high-energy
particles—exploding from Sun-like stars over recent decades. This did not
cause alarm back on Earth, because they believed that they either came from
young “active” stars or from stars that had been “spun-up” by companion stars.
Closer…
