Powerful solar superflares, which can generate geomagnetic storms and disrupt radio communications and GPS, damage satellites and endanger astronauts and even airline passengers, just got a lot easier to predict, thanks to a new formula that's based on half a century of X-ray observations of the sun.
The new findings could have immediate real-world implications. NASA's Artemis 2 astronaut mission around the moon has been pushed back to the beginning of April at the earliest to address issues with its rocket, but Victor M. Velasco Herrera of the National Autonomous University of Mexico thinks that it should be delayed even longer.
