If you had some cell phone trouble Wednesday, you might blame the sun.
LISTEN: CKNW’s Niki Reitmayer speaks with University of Toronto astrophysicist Bryan Gaensler
“Well this is very much breaking news, but a few hours ago early this morning, the sun gave off a solar flare,” said University of Toronto astrophysicist Brian Gaensler. “That’s not too unusual, but this was an extremely large solar flare. One so big, we haven’t seen one like it in more than 10 years.”
Gaensler said the huge solar flare is heading towards the earth.
“The concern here is that if the radiation from a solar flare hits the earth, it can knock out satellites, disrupt mobile phones, and other forms of communication.”
He said it takes several hours to determine if the radiation generated by the flare impacts communications systems.
“It does take time for the particles to travel from the sun to the earth. But if it did hit the earth, then it certainly could be disrupting communications and transmissions at a rather crucial time.”
This event is part of a geomagnetic storm that will make the aurora borealis quite spectacular Wednesday night in parts of the northern hemisphere.
-With files from Niki Reitmayer