华盛顿——美国航空航天局用专门的相机捕获到了一颗太阳耀斑爆发时，令人叹为观止的一幕。不过科学家们认为这一中等规模的太阳耀斑即使对地球有影响，其影响也不大。美国航天航空局表示，在周二早些时候，此次耀斑的强度达到了最高值，并产生了一大片几乎可以覆盖一半太阳表面的耀斑云。据美国科罗拉多州国家气象服务中心 的空间气象预报中心预测，这种爆发于太阳外层大气的带电粒子云，预计将于周三晚上或者周四早上经过地球，并对地球磁场产生微弱干扰。

"This wasn't really such a big event," said Michael Hesse, chief of the space weather laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It was spectacular to watch, but not big in terms of hazards to the Earth."
“这并不算什么大事，虽然它看起来很惊人，但是对地球没什么太大危害。”美国航空航天局驻马里兰格林贝尔特宇宙气象实验室教授迈克尔黑塞如是说。
 
At most, the cloud that erupted from the sun may cause some brief interruptions to high-frequency radio communications, especially closer to the North and South poles, said Joe Kunches, a space scientist at SWPC. Some global positioning devices also may make tiny errors, he said.

“从太阳表面爆发的电子云层最多也只能引起高频无线电通讯的数次短暂中断，特别是在一些接近南北极的地区。同时，也会导致一些全球定位装置产生微小的偏差。”来自SWPC的宇宙科学家乔解释说。

"It doesn't look like it's going to be a direct hit on the Earth," Kunches said. "It's going to be, if you use a baseball analogy, a little bit low and outside on the pitch."
The aurora borealis also may be more visible Thursday or Friday night, he said.

“它看起来不像是直接瞄准地球而来的。如果拿棒球来打比方的话，它像是从球场外并且低一点的方向过来的。同时，在周四或周五晚上，人们也许能更清晰的观看到北极光。”Kunches说。

Images of the flare were recorded by an orbiting satellite called the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The photos and video were the most spectacular that the satellite has captured since it was launched last year, Hesse said.

一颗名为太阳动力学观测卫星的轨道卫星拍摄了一组太阳耀斑的图片。“这些照片和视频是自去年卫星发射以来捕捉到的最为壮观的东西了！”黑塞说。

A much larger solar flare erupted Saturday, but NASA didn't capture images because it happened on the side of the sun opposite Earth, Hesse said. Scientists have been expecting an increase in solar activity because the sun is moving into a more volatile period of an 11-year cycle in which its magnetic field reverses its orientation.

黑塞说：周六，太阳爆发出了更大规模的耀斑。但因其爆发于背对地球的那一侧太阳表面，所以美国航空航天局并未捕捉到该耀斑爆发时的壮景。
科学家们一直期望太阳更为活跃，因为太阳正在步入十一年一循环的不稳定时期，在此期间，其磁极方向将会发生互换。

"The sun has woken up and is becoming more active as we approach the solar maximum," expected in 2013, Hesse said.

 “太阳已经醒来，并逐步活跃。我们正在不断靠近它最活跃的时期----估计是在2013年。”黑塞说。

供稿/fanyitie.com