Final answer:
The time it takes for charged particles from a solar flare to reach Earth's orbit depends on their speed and usually follows the detection of the flare by minutes to hours. Ground-based telescopes respond to bursts detected by high-energy telescopes to locate precise afterglow positions that can be associated with individual stars or galaxies. Differentiating a quasar from a nearby radio source involves analyzing characteristics like redshift.
Step-by-step explanation:
The time it takes for charged particles ejected from a solar flare to reach astronauts orbiting Earth can be estimated based on the speed of these particles and the distance from the Sun to the Earth. Although the specific data required to perform this calculation was not provided in the question, typically, solar flare particles travel at speeds of up to a few million miles per hour, and it takes approximately 8 minutes for light (and other electromagnetic waves such as radio waves) to travel from the Sun to Earth. The charged particles generally arrive later than the light and can take anywhere from minutes to hours to reach Earth's orbit, depending on the intensity of the flare and the speed of the particles.
When a high-energy telescope in orbit detects a burst of energy such as a gamma-ray burst, the information about its location is quickly transmitted to ground-based observers via networks like the Gamma-Ray Coordinates Network at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. These observers can then attempt to locate the afterglow in visible-light or radio wavelengths, which provides a position accurate enough to be associated with a specific star or galaxy.
To distinguish between a newly discovered quasar and a nearby radio transmission, astronomers would analyze the characteristics of the radio source, such as its redshift, which would indicate the object's distance and confirm its extragalactic nature.