Posted on 02/21/2022 7:43:14 AM PST by BenLurkin
A major eruption on the far side of the sun Tuesday created one of the largest coronal mass ejections (CME) in recent years, KTLA sister station KOIN reports.
Though the explosive CME is not expected to strike Earth, images captured by satellite and seismic mapping showing the sheer size of the eruption had many people talking...
Todd said scientists estimate the flare stretched to roughly 400,000 kilometers...
CME events of this magnitude are caused when the negative and positive charges within the electromagnetic field on the sun contradict, resulting in a powerful discharge or sunspots.
CME events and sun flares are not independently surprising, though the scale of this explosion would pose a serious threat to Earth, had our planet been in the direct line of fire.
[S]cientists have theorized that this week’s CME may be linked to the same Jupiter-sized sunspot that generated a geomagnetic storm on Feb. 4, and took out 40 SpaceX satellites.
“If this storm was headed towards the Earth, it would cause a massive worldwide aurora effect, which some say would represent similarities to the 1859 Carrington Event.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
That is indeed what happened, but what I asked was what might happen if a Carrington level CME hit just as he was making a decision. Would his tanks even work? etc.
We may find out. My hope is, a spread of small bolides arrives and strikes across Asia, obliterating China, Russia, and Iran, without a single strike large enough to end what passes for modern civilization. The high altitude dust clouds kicked up would last for decades.
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