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View Full Version : Could a Solar Flare Destroy the Earth?

Ishmael
May 8, 2007, 03:52 PM
Just wondering, and I didn't know where to ask. It's just something I was thinking about...
sentinel00
May 8, 2007, 03:53 PM
Yes.
gilraen
May 8, 2007, 04:00 PM
I'm not a physicist, nor do I play one on TV. But I don't think a flare could destroy the whole world, or all life on it. It would wreak havoc on every communication system that depends on the electromagnetic spectrum, though, and the weather. A lot of people would probably die.

But I think it would take a nova for the whole world to be destroyed.
Perm
May 8, 2007, 04:02 PM
The guys over at S&S might be better equipped to answer that question.

linky: http://www.iidb.org/vbb/forumdisplay.php?f=65

Unless you were just wanting random opinions I suppose.
Huginn
May 8, 2007, 04:03 PM
We'd see very pretty auroras as we died.
Yggdrasill
May 8, 2007, 04:10 PM
Destroy the world, no.

Destroy all electronics on earth, as well as every satellite, yes.
WWJD4aKlondikeBar
May 8, 2007, 04:17 PM
Unless you were just wanting random opinions I suppose.Hey, that's my cue! :)

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!*









* - in an eventual, nihilistic sort of way.
Ishmael
May 8, 2007, 04:25 PM
So life on the planet could be drastically changed by something as random as a flare from the sun... nice.
gilraen
May 8, 2007, 04:28 PM
Yep. And we could all go back to being "star stuff".
RareBird
May 8, 2007, 04:31 PM
If a severe enough solar emission were to come this way, it could do what an asteroid would do in some regards. It could impact the atmosphere on one side of the Earth with such force as to send the atmosphere on the entire globe into severe turmoil. The fact that the Earth will continue to have a magnetic field means that the Earth will recover. It's hard to say how well species including man would fair under such an assault however. Just my H/O.
rlogan
May 8, 2007, 04:34 PM
In a manner of speaking.

The cover-up is worse than the flare. Although the cover-up is what will bring the world down, if there had been no flare in the first place the world would be OK.
premjan
May 8, 2007, 09:05 PM
cover-up? This was recently quoted as a negative to finding life around red dwarf stars are they are more prone to flaring abruptly.
Vortex
May 9, 2007, 01:33 AM
TL to S&S