Image courtesy SDO/NASA.
A solar flare on June 7 unleashed a massive eruption on the sun—perhaps the biggest ever recorded, scientists say.
The solar flare itself—an unusually bright spot on the sun—was only a “moderate” event. Space observatories in the past year recorded about 70 such solar flares, each roughly ten times weaker than “extreme” flares, of which only two have occurred since 2007.
Everest Base Camp Trek, Nepal by Peter Potterfield
Over the past decade, author Peter Potterfield has hiked more than 10,000 miles over six continents to research this list. He here tells us his picks for the world’s 15 best hikes, including Patagonia, Tasmania, Newfoundland, and Petra. Read more in his best-selling book Classic Hikes of the World or his forthcoming book Classic Hikes of North America (to be released in 2012).
