Solar Flares on Steroids: "Solar Flares on Steroids
Solar flares that scorch Earth's atmosphere are commonplace. But scientists have discovered a few each year that are not like the others: they come from stars thousands of light years away.

September 12, 2003: On August 24, 1998, there was an explosion on the sun as powerful as a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Earth-orbiting satellites registered a surge of x-rays. Minutes later they were pelted by fast-moving solar protons. Our planet's magnetic field recoiled from the onslaught, and ham radio operators experienced a strong shortwave blackout.

None of these things made headlines. The explosion was an 'X-class' solar flare, and during years around solar maximum, such as 1998, such flares are commonplace. They happen every few days or weeks. The Aug. 24th event was powerful, yet typical.

A few days later--no surprise--another blast wave swept past Earth. Satellites registered a surge of x-rays and gamma-rays. Hams experienced another blackout. It seemed like another X-class solar flare. Except for one thing: this flare didn't come from the sun.

It came from outer space.

'The source of the blast was SGR 1900+14, a neutron star about 45,000 light years away,' says NASA astronomer Pete Woods. 'It was the strongest burst of cosmic x-rays and gamma rays we've ever recorded.'

SGR 1900+14 is a special kind of neutron star called a magnetar. "Magnetars have the strongest magnetic fields in the universe: a million billion (1015) gauss," he says. For comparison, the magnetic field of the sun is less than 10 gauss in most places, and about 1000 gauss near sunspots.

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