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Posted on 07/16/2004 8:48:44 PM PDT by Denver Ditdat
Earlier this month the Sun was as quiet as can be and free of the dark sunspots that generate eruptions of magnetic energy and hot gas. Now the solar surface is dotted with brooding blotches, and overnight a major flare erupted.
The strong eruption, labeled an X2, involved an intense flash of radiation late Wednesday evening (East Coast time). All X-flares are considered major, and the associated number denotes just how strong they are.
Major flares sometimes also hurl clouds of hot gas into space. These coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can threaten Earth-orbiting satellites and surface power grids, and also fuel colorful sky aurora referred to as the Northern Lights.
The X2 flare did not send a CME toward Earth, according to the NASA-run web site Spaceweather.com. The flash emanated from a large sunspot group numbered 649, which recently rotated into view on the left side of the Sun.
Another big sunspot system lurks just behind the limb of the Sun and will appear over the weekend.
Either of the two sunspots groups fuel major eruptions over the next week to 10 days that could affect Earth. Sunspots are cooler regions of twisted magnetic fields at the solar surface. They're a bit like tops on a shaken soda bottle that, when released, can let out a lot of pent-up material.
Researchers cannot yet predict when sunspots will snap. But solar activity is expected to be at moderate to high for several days, according to NASA and the Space Environment Center, the cosmic equivalent of the National Weather Service.
Last October and November, the Sun generated an amazing series of 10 X-class flares in the space of two weeks. One was the most powerful on record, an X28. A few spacecraft were damaged or disabled, and a significant bit of Mars' atmosphere was stripped way.
Scientists recently announced that the fastest of those fall blasts has reached the edge of the solar system.
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"... and a significant bit of Mars' atmosphere was stripped way."
I thought it was the SUV's.
One of these days it'll happen to Earth.
Environmentalist whackos reserve the right to flip or flop as they deem fit.
Hooray !!!
Maybe Muttly get his X-Ray vision back, like he did last year.
This time he won't wet his mummy-sack when he thinks his pup-tent disappeared, and he is sleeping on the front lawn at the other side of the house.
Lordy Mercy.. its the "Kill Shot".
LMAO..........Stay Safe Muttly !
I remember standing these long boring LORAN control watches in the USCG when all of a sudden things would go haywire. X-class flares. I would have a web page pulled up to USNA space weather at all times and the LORAN symptoms always happened before it would even show up on the satalite data. We had a special phone number for each other, they were supposed to call US for space weather alerts. Sometimes I would see the symptoms and call them and say "an X class is about to happen", was pretty funny....memories. I'm sure that is one of the few jobs in the world where people actualy worry about solar flares.
Then again, Nextel never did have very good reception, and it could just be that Nextel plain sucks.
Oh, wonderful. Now the "global warming" crowd will have another chance to wring their hands and whine about the eeeevils of gas-burning cars.
"Scientists weren't certain exactly how the linkage worked, but noted that the recent solar flareups seemed to be in conjunction with the irritation that voters had to the foolishness coming from the Kerry election campaign".
Oh, I don't know about that. Comm Sat companies. Users of those services. Extremely paranoid users that might rely on them for backup, since fiber does get cut, lasers die ...
I think the first recorded solar flare affecting society was in the 19th century. One actually drove the telegraph system haywire.
Oh, and I wonder if last Fall's flares took out the Jap Mars mission? One or two months shy of two year trip and the
thing dies from a solar flare. They probably worry about solar flares. At least now they do.
Looks like the Dean "yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaas" finally reached the sun.
we should shoot a missle at the sun and show it who's boss.
Probably ruined my eyesight, but tonight (7/21) the sun is orange on the horizon and I can see a large black spot on it with my naked eyes. My husband pointed it out to me and asked if he was seeing things.
Cool.
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