ASK Space
STARS
If the Sun erupted with a 'superflare', how harmful would it be for life on Earth?
Superflares emit large amounts of dangerous high-energy particles, but life on Earth is protected by a thick atmosphere, and there are almost no effects. However, now is the space age, and there are astronauts in space, and maybe also on the Moon or Mars in the near future. Superflares can cause risks for them since they don’t have the shield of the thick atmosphere, so special preparations should be done.
Although superflares do not affect survival for life directly – of course, no life extinction is expected to occur because of superflares – our daily life can be severely damaged by superflares. Now our society and our daily lives are strongly supported by technologies using electricity and satellite communication, for example, GPS. Large plasma ejections, called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, caused by superflares can generate a large magnetic storm in the Earth's magnetosphere, and this can cause severe damage to
