Solar Flares May Shake Up Weather On Distant Planets

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A new study has found that solar flares—sudden bursts of energy from stars—can trigger short-term weather changes on planets far beyond our solar system.

The research, published in The Astronomical Journal, offers some of the clearest evidence so far that space weather can affect a planet's climate within just a few days.

These findings may also help scientists better understand how solar activity influences Earth's own atmosphere.

The study was led by a global team of scientists from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, NASA, the Florida Institute of Technology, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and the University of Oxford.

Using advanced computer simulations, the researchers looked at how solar flares might affect the climate of Earth-like planets that orbit very close to their stars.

One such example is TRAPPIST-1e, a rocky planet that always keeps the same side facing its sun—similar to how the Moon always shows one face to Earth.

The team discovered that when a solar flare hits, it causes a dramatic chain reaction in the planet's atmosphere.

The upper layers of the atmosphere quickly cool down due to radiative emissions from molecules like carbon dioxide and nitric oxide.

Meanwhile, the lower atmosphere gets warmer as greenhouse-like gases such as water vapor and nitrous oxide increase. On the night side of the planet, wind speeds can suddenly surge, reaching up to 140 kilometers per hour—roughly the speed of a Category 1 hurricane.