Powerful twin solar flares erupt from sun as cell phone outages spike across US

space.com

13 points_justinfunk3 comments

> It remains unclear if the two events are related, but reports of outages appeared to begin around the same time as the solar flares.

Thank you for burying that in the middle of the story, Mr. Tingley.

The light and radiation takes 8 minutes (or zero time depending on how count it). But the radiation doesn't cause much trouble since absorbed by the atmosphere.

The charged particles from solar flares take 15-24 hours to reach Earth. The charged particles from big flares can interfere with radio, and huge ones can induce currents and knock out power grid.

It is deceptive to suggest the flares and outage are connected. The Sun is approaching solar maximum. Solar flares, including strong ones, happen all the time.

I feel like it is extremely bold to draw this correlation

Reply on news.ycombinator.com