Astrophysicist warns that Internet could be knocked out for weeks or months as the Sun enters the peak of massive eruptions phase.

Our planet has been hit this December with powerful flares as the Sun is entering the most active phase of its 11-year cycle, releasing massive coronal ejections and streams of energetic particles in various directions.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently documented a substantial hole in our star's atmosphere, allowing a significant amount of solar wind to escape. 

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According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, which is run by the U.S.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this event knocked out radio communication on Earth for two hours in Latin America and the southern part of the United States. 

This has been the most significant solar flare documented since at least 2017 and the peak of solar activity will be seen in 2025, it underlined.

Scientists have consistently warned about the potential havoc solar storms could wreak on electrical equipment on Earth, affecting train and plane signals, disrupting entire power grids, and even causing damage to satellites in the orbit.

Earlier this year, Peter Becker, a professor of physics and astronomy at George Mason University, expressed concerns that an exceptionally intense solar storm could lead to an "internet apocalypse," potentially triggering a worldwide recession.

Becker and other astrophysicists expect more massive solar eruptions in the near future, noting that it’s hard to predict exactly when they will happen.

Flares can last minutes to hours and they contain tremendous amounts of energy. Traveling at the speed of light, it takes eight minutes for the light from a solar flare to reach Earth. 

Some of the energy released in the flare also accelerates very high energy particles that can reach Earth in tens of minutes.