TODAY: Giant flare sweeps through solar system after powerful explosion, scientists say

Such explosions could affect phone signal today, and help us understand the very beginnings of the universe

The source of a huge flare that swept through our solar system has been pinpointed by scientists.

The discovery could help the understanding of gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe.

Earth is hit by mild and short gamma-ray bursts regularly, on most days. But more rarely there are vast explosions, like the newly examined GRB 200415A, which bring with them a lashing of energy more powerful than our own Sun.

The flare seems to have emerged from an unusual, powerful neutron star known as a magnetar, scientists report in new findings published in Nature Astronomy.


“Our sun is a very ordinary star. When it dies, it will get bigger and become a red giant star. After that it will collapse into a small compact star called a white dwarf,” said Soebur Razzaque from the University of Johannesburg, who led the research.

Such stars instead explode into a supernova, and then leave behind a small compact star known as a neutron star. They are tiny – they could be packed into a space 12 miles across – but are so dense that a spoonful would weigh tons.



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