Posted on 11/18/2012 5:34:39 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The sun unleashed a monster eruption of super-hot plasma Friday (Nov. 16) in back-to-back solar storms captured on camera by a NASA spacecraft.
The giant sun eruption, called a solar prominence, occurred at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT), with another event flaring up four hours later. The prominences was so large, it expanded beyond the camera view of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which captured high-definition video of the solar eruption.
In the video, a colossal loop of glowing red plasma erupts from the lower left of the sun, arcing up and out of frame as it blasts away from the star.
"The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium," officials with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which oversees the SDO mission, explained in a description. "The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun’s internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma."
Friday's solar eruption does not appear to be aimed at Earth, so will likely have little effect on our planet. But that was not the case earlier this week when a powerful solar flare erupted on Monday (Nov. 12). That flare registered as an M6-class eruption, a moderate but still intense solar event.
On Tuesday and Wednesday (Nov. 13 and 14), space weather conditions sparked a geomagnetic storm that supercharged the Earth's auroras, creating spectacular northern lights displays for observers at high latitudes.
When aimed directly at Earth, the most powerful solar flares and eruptions can pose a threat to satellites and astronauts in orbit, and also interfere with communication, navigation and power systems on the ground.
The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. The current cycle is called Solar Cycle 24 and is expected to peak in 2013.
Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of the northern lights created by recent sun flares, or any other sky object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, send images, comments and location information to managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.
You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik and SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
2 days of red beans and rice. Lots of eruptions around here today.
H/T to the Drudge Report.
So, are we now seeing increased solar activity which has been subdued for awhile?
Will that affect our winter weather?
ARE WE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
Mayan Calendar says we have at least a month left ... Not to worry.
These flares have been getting bigger and bigger and next year is the apex of the cycle. When a flare shoots off it goes in a straight line, no deviation, so one knows where it is going. If it’s path is directed at earth, we will get it.
If we get past 2013 without getting a major burst that destroys our electrical system, maybe we will be okay. That doesn’t guarantee we won’t get a big one the next year but at least we would have made it through the most active year of 2013.
I read up on an EMT from this and also from a nuclear bomb going off over the country and found that a sun EMT is less destructive because it stays in that straight line, and is pulled into the electric system. You car would likely work and so would any electronic equipment IF IT WAS NOT PLUGGED IN when this happens.
A bomb EMT, however, is spread out and corrupts everything, plugged in or not.
Awesome!
My theory is just as valid it was caused by liberalism and we must reduce the liberal population until the sun settles down
Amen!
The Sun. The real cause of Global Warming.
GREAT Images! Thanks!
Let ‘em soak overnight in water with about 1 tsp of salt added. It helps!
Just think ? just the latest Solar fart is more power and energy than all of human history of using any kind of fuels.
Thanks Ernest and onyx, here’s an ‘extra’ for APoD members, plus an ‘extra’:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2960690/posts
Thanks Ernest and onyx, here’s an ‘extra’ for APoD members, plus an ‘extra’:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2960690/posts
Friday's solar eruption does not appear to be aimed at Earth, so will likely have little effect on our planet.I beg to differ.
On Sat afternoon I was noodling around with my newest Fender Strat and Mustang III Amp and all of a sudden I got HUM, lots of hum. This can be common on Fender Strat's due to their single coil pickups, it's called '60 cycle hum'. So natch that's what I thought it was and switched from my Strat to my ES-335 that has Humbuckers -- and those PUs are IMMUNE to the dreaded 60 cycle hum. Well .... surprise, but no luck, the Hum was still there.
It had to be due to this Solar Flare as yesterday I got out my Srat, plugged it into my Mustang and there wasn't any hum (This isn't the first time I've experienced this 'anomaly').
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