Astronomers can see solar flares erupting from the surface of the sun. So we would get a warning. Weak solar flares travel through space at the same speed as strong solar flares. It is much slower than the speed of light, which is what we get when we look at the sun through a telescope.
Solar flares can reach Earth at the speed of light in eight minutes (this is according to NASA).
Um, no. Light can reach us in about 8 minutes, but charged particles erupting from the photosphere of the sun take about 3 days or so. If you have particles that have mass (photons are massless) moving at the speed of light and hitting the Earth, that would fuck up the whole planet. Particles with mass moving at relativistic velocities would have huge momentum and would cause major damage in quantities found in a CME. So no, no they are not moving at the speed of light. Link to your NASA proof that they can reach the Earth in just 8 minutes.
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