A solar flare hit the Earth at 6 a.m. Thursday – but don’t worry, it’s not the end of the dinosaurs. According to scientists, we were lucky: the flare has not caused any damage to satellites, power grids, or airplanes. But we’ll probably be expecting more solar flares in the next year.

The flare (basically a huge surge of charged particles spewed out by the sun) happened as a result of a massive solar storm, the sun’s biggest in five years. When these particles collide with the Earth, they create geomagnetic currents that can interfere with communication systems and power grids.

Considering the sheer size of this week’s storm, our planet fared well. The last big storm in 2003 interfered with satellites and knocked out a power grid in Sweden, while the 1989 solar flare left the entire province of Quebec in the dark for nine hours.

Solar storms are a regular occurrence in the sun’s 11-year cycle, when its magnetic poles reverse. The peak of solar activity is expected in 2013, when more flares are likely to occur. Awesome.

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