In case pondering upon the origins of the moon over the weekend did not bring you closer to realising that God is real, here is a thought provoking article about the sun. Don’t forget to subscribe to Creation Magazine and support one of the most effective Christian Ministries operating today.

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Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

Solar activity and the earth

By Donna Mullenax

Published 08 Nov, 2025

The sun has more influence on the earth than you would think.

The sun has been making headline news in this year of 2024—and not just the spectacular solar eclipse in North America. Solar flares. Coronal mass ejections. Solar prominences.¹ Sunspots. Longer than normal solar maximum.² Words and phrases like these have been prominent in the media and social media. Then there was the powerful X5 solar flare on New Year’s Eve 2023.³ What are these solar phenomena (also known as solar weather), and how do they impact you?

Most of the solar phenomena are ‘invisible’ to the unaided eye. One exception concerns the largest sunspots (fig. 2; caution: never look directly at the sun without proper eclipse glasses). In addition, we can detect the way in which some of these phenomena affect the earth, even without specialized instruments. For example, we can see the auroras (northern and southern lights, fig. 3), which become much more intense as the result of a solar flare. And we can notice the disruptive impact of solar weather on modern communications.

Spots and flares on the sun

Before the advent of telescopes designed to view the sun, the sun was thought to be an unchanging calm star. It was not until sunspots were studied over time that many started to realize the sun was constantly changing. Galileo is considered the first to study and document the sun over 400 years ago, though some debate exists over this. Some ancient records from before Christ discuss possible sunspots.^4,5

The sun is a high energy plasma sphere comprised mostly of hydrogen (73% by mass) and helium (25%); the remainder (2%) is trace elements. Plasma, sometimes called the ‘fourth state of matter’ (in addition to solid, liquid, gas) is formed when a gas is superheated to such a high temperature that the electrons are ripped away from their atoms to make an ionized gas. The plasma rotates at different speeds on different parts of the sun, and plasma flow with its charged particles produces a strong, active magnetic field.

Sunspots, the largest of them visible without instruments, are areas where the magnetic field is particularly strong. They appear darker (fig. 2) because they are somewhat cooler than the surrounding areas, i.e., ~3,500˚ C (6,300˚ F) compared to ~5,500˚ C (9,900˚ F).

This magnetic field sometimes becomes twisted. When it violently straightens out, it releases various sorts of powerful electromagnetic radiation, and causes charged particles (mostly protons and electrons) to be propelled at high speed into the solar system. These high-energy, bright ‘explosions’ are known as solar flares. They typically occur near the sunspots. The radiation takes eight minutes to reach the earth. Since the particles travel more slowly, they take about 20 minutes.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) often goes hand in hand with a solar flare. It, too, is the result of magnetic field realignment. A CME is a huge cloud of solar plasma with its embedded magnetic fields hurled from the sun; it takes days to reach the earth (fig. 1).

Solar prominences (called solar filaments when viewed from a different angle) are not eruptions and do not impact the earth. They are plasma loops associated with the sunspots. Good online summaries of the differences and connections between the prominences/filaments, flares, and CMEs are readily accessible.⁶

Magnetic reversals and the solar cycle

It has been known for a long time that the sun goes through what is known as a solar cycle which repeats every 11 years or so (fig. 4). At the end of each cycle (which is the beginning of the next one), the magnetic poles of the sun literally ‘flip’—the north magnetic pole and south magnetic pole change places.

Even the evolutionary National Geographic admits: “The protective heliosphere shields everything inside it, including our fragile DNA, from most of the galaxy’s highest-energy radiation.”

The reason for such a massive change is unknown, but the pattern and timing is quite consistent. At the beginning of the solar cycle, there are few to no sunspots—this is known as solar minimum. The number of sunspots increases as the overall solar activity increases, until it reaches solar maximum towards the middle of the cycle. It then gradually fades back to the solar minimum and then a new cycle begins, with the field reversing. The current cycle (solar cycle 25—fig. 5) began in December 2019. When this article is published in September 2024, we will be close to the predicted solar maximum—we might even be in it, but we won’t know for sure until it’s over. Solar cycle 26 should begin in 2030.

Solar wind: design feature

In addition to emitting electromagnetic radiation at many different wavelengths (not just visible light), the sun constantly sends out a stream of high-speed, high-energy charged particles—the solar wind, which reaches the earth. The Voyager space probes showed that it actually ‘blows’ way past all the planets, forming a huge ‘bubble’, the heliosphere. As Voyager 2 found, outside of its limit, the heliopause, there was far more energetic radiation. Thus the solar wind is a design feature—a radiation shield. Even the evolutionary National Geographic admits: “The protective heliosphere shields everything inside it, including our fragile DNA, from most of the galaxy’s highest-energy radiation.”⁷

Auroras

However, the solar wind would be dangerous to life too, were it not deflected by Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. Auroras are produced, usually near Earth’s magnetic poles, when these particles interact with the atmosphere, which absorbs some of their energy. Favouring lower energy states, the electrons release photons at different wavelengths. The sky starts to dance with an array of colours (fig. 3).

Our magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and ionosphere (a layer in the upper atmosphere where the sun’s radiation interacts with gases to form charged particles called ions) reflect God’s design to protect the planet from the effects of the solar wind. The magnetosphere channels these particles towards the poles, which is why auroras are most often seen in high latitudes, i.e. closer to the poles. The ionosphere helps dissipate some of the particles’ energy, radiating it back to space as heat.

When the concentration of the high-speed particles and the extra-powerful radiation increases during solar flares and CMEs, it can greatly increase aurora activity. Auroras can then be seen at much lower latitudes—for example, as low as Georgia, USA. Humans may have been able to view auroras since the creation of Adam and Eve.

Concerns for modern society

Flares and CMEs can impact communication and navigation on the earth. They can disrupt radio and cell phone communications, disable GPS satellites, and even knock out electrical grids. In 1989, a solar storm destroyed Quebec’s grid and caused a massive blackout affecting millions.⁸ NASA and other space agencies around the world are watching the sun 24/7.⁹ NASA regularly works with power and communications companies, hoping to guard against similar events.

Flares on other stars

Repeated solar flares of such intensity would seem to eliminate any possibility of this exoplanet [Proxima Centauri B] being able to sustain life.

Not surprisingly, other stars also have flares. A solar flare has been observed on Proxima Centauri, at 4¼ light-years away the closest star to our solar system. Estimates have this flare 100 times more powerful than anything our sun has produced. Viewed at ultraviolet wavelengths, the star became 14,000 times brighter within seconds!¹⁰ But Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, dimmer than the sun, and about ⅛ as big. Yet, its magnetic field is so violent as to produce such massive flares, probably around five times a year.

Why does this matter? There is a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, called Proxima Centauri B. When first discovered, there was great excitement in evolutionary circles. This ‘exoplanet’ is just 1.3 times Earth’s mass and orbiting the nearest star to us. Its distance from its star is also in the so-called ‘Goldilocks zone’, just right for liquid water to exist on its surface. All this fuelled the speculation that life maybe evolved there—despite the impossibly small scientific chance of unaided chemicals becoming alive anywhere.¹¹

However, repeated solar flares of such intensity would seem to eliminate any possibility of this exoplanet being able to sustain life.¹² Over time, any atmosphere or ocean would be stripped away. And the UV light from the flare reaching the surface is estimated at about 100 times the intensity needed to destroy ‘UV-hardy’ bacteria on Earth. Red dwarfs are the most common type of star, but invisible to the naked eye. Many of them are ‘flare stars’ like Proxima.¹³ Our sun is remarkably quiescent compared to red dwarfs, and even compared to other stars like the sun. It is another example of the many ways in which our Creator God has designed and made a ‘Goldilocks’ earth and solar system for us. Our place in the universe is wonderfully suited for humans to inhabit!¹⁴

God created our solar system for His glory, and the earth within it to be inhabited by mankind, in order to worship and have fellowship with Him. The sun and its ever-changing activity are an example of His power and wisdom, and the relative lack of our own power and understanding.

Flare strength

Solar flares are the most violent events in our solar system. Their observed strength is recorded by a letter followed by a number. The five classes are the letters A, B, C, M, and X (weakest to strongest). Within each class, there are nine numerical subdivisions, 1 to 9—also by strength, and in powers of 10. So, the weakest is an A1; an A2 is 10 times stronger, A3 is 10 times that again, etc. After A9, the next strongest is a B1, 10 times stronger again. The only category class which is not limited to 9 is X.

Even the weakest flares release energy equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs (though spread out more in area and time). Therefore, the X5 solar flare on New Year’s Eve 2023 was a very strong solar flare. The 4 November 2003 flare was a staggering X28! Such super flares are rare compared to our nearest star which, despite being much smaller than the sun, appears to emit flares at a much greater frequency and generally many times stronger than typical ones on our sun. This has strong design implications for life on Earth (see main text).

Postscript

As I was working on this article, the sun put on quite a show, with multiple solar storms. Not just one, but several X-flares caused a massive geomagnetic storm, producing auroras on 10 May 2024 at latitudes as low as Florida in the US. This made the power of the sun and its impact on the earth very evident to many in this country

References and Notes

1. Baker, H., No, you didn’t see a solar flare during the total eclipse—but you may have seen something just as special, livescience.com, 10 Apr 2024.
2. Dobrijevic, D., Solar maximum will arrive sooner and last longer than previously expected, say scientists, space.com, 30 Oct 2023.
3. Specktor, B., Monstrous X5 solar flare launched on New Year’s Eve could bring auroras to Earth tonight, livescience.com, 2 Jan 2024.
4. The historical sunspot record, scribd.com, acc. 21 May 2024.
5. annex.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/history2.html
6. E.g., Is a solar flare the same thing as a CME?, earthsky.org, 22 Mar 2023; also Koleva, K. et al., Relations among eruptive prominence properties, flare evolution, and CME kinematics in large solar energetic particle events, J. Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 212:105464, 2021.
7. Greshko, M., Interstellar space even weirder than expected, NASA probe reveals, nationalgeographic.com, 4 Nov 2019. See also creation.com/heliopause.
8. Sarfati, J., The sun: our special star, Creation 22(1):27–31, 1999; creation.com/sun.
9. soho.nascom.nasa.gov
10. Baker, H., Proxima Centauri shoots out humongous flare, with big implications for alien life, space.com, 25 Apr 2021.
11. Batten D., The origin of life, creation.com/origin-of-life, last updated Feb 2024.
12. Wall, M., ‘Superflares’ may make it hard for life to thrive on Earth’s nearest exoplanet, space.com, 12 Apr 2018.
13. Grigg, R., Ultracool Trappist-1 and its seven planets, creation.com/seven-planets, 3 Mar 2017.
14. Carnegie Institution for Science, Proxima Centauri’s no good, very bad day, sciencedaily.com, 26 Feb 2018.

Related Articles

• Solar wind protects us from cosmic rays
• Age of the Sun
• The sun: our special star
• Superflares and the origin of life on Earth
• Ultracool Trappist-1 and its seven planets

Further Reading

• Solar System and Extra-solar Planets Questions and Answers
• Ultracool Trappist-1 and its seven planets
• Astronomy and Astrophysics Questions and Answers

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