Minor flares occur regularly on the Sun and give rise to auroras when they reach the Earth.
One such outburst in 1989 brought down the power grid in northern Quebec. However, even solar activity of this magnitude is mild by normal stellar standards. A solar superflare would be enough to melt large flood plains on the icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn and instantly destroy about half of the Earth's ozone layer. If the Sun is indeed unusual in its stability and hospitability toward life, this could have important implications for the frequency with which life and intelligence emerge on other worlds. See extraterrestrial civilizations, hazards to .