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LiveScience
LiveScience
Ben Turner

Are solar flares responsible for the AT&T service outage? Not likely, experts say.

Earth ATT NOAA Sun Radiation United States Verizon
An X1.8-class solar flare spotted by NASA's NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on Feb. 21.

A mysterious widespread cellphone outage has coincided with the eruption of two powerful "X-class" solar flares from a "dangerous" sunspot. Yet scientists warn that the two events are probably unconnected.

The two intense flares burst from the sunspot AR3590 Wednesday (Feb. 21) at 6:07 p.m. ET (23:07 GMT) and Thursday (Feb. 22) at 1:32 a.m. ET (06:32 GMT), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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