SOLAR FLARES CAN BE X-RATED. “The strongest flare ever observed has been dubbed the Carrington Superflare of 1859, after principal observer Richard Carrington; it is estimated to have been around an X100, and it and the subsequent CME it generated had significant worldwide effects. . . . Fortunately, as the Sun rotated, it had carried 2673 a bit farther around so that it wasn’t aimed directly at Earth, so when the CME hits Earth a glancing blow sometime between the evening of 7 September and the late afternoon of 8 September, it shouldn’t be too bad. We’ll get some really cool aurorae that might dip down to the mid-latitudes.”