As You Wish

To live in fear, Or just Live nationalpost: Two real things from outer space that could devastate the planet, and one right here on EarthIn the past few months, a pair of existential threats to life have appeared from outer space, and one here on Earth. The National Post rounds them up:SOLAR MEGA FLARE COULD ENGULF THE PLANETA new paper published in Space Weather, predicts that there is a 1 in 8 chance that the Earth will be blasted by a giant mega flare from the sun before 2020.While such an event likely wouldn’t fry all life on Earth, as implied by the movie Knowing, the flare could possibly disrupt electrical and radio systems and could, in fact, be strong enough that power stations and the entire electrical grid could be shut down, or worse, permanently destroyed. (Photo: A large X-class flare erupts from an active region near the solar west limb in this NASA handout image dated January 27, 2012. (NASA/JAXA/Hinode/Handout)

78