National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Goddard Space Flight Center
Sun-Earth Day 2010: Magnetic Storms
IMAGE GALLERY
An artist's concept of the heliosphere, a magnetic bubble that partially protects the solar system from cosmic rays. Read more at: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/ray_surge.html
Credit: Richard Mewaldt/Caltech
NASA Fact
The August 4, 1972 solar flare was so powerful that, by some estimates, a spacesuited astronaut would have received a lethal does of radiation.