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Largest Sun Spot In Nine Years Now Viewable

Posted by timothy on from the hang-on-to-your-cell-phones dept.

Mazarin writes: "The BBC has an interesting article about the largest sun spot to come around in nine years. 'The spot, which is moving towards the centre of the Sun's disk, covers an area a dozen times larger than the entire surface of the Earth.' The article goes on to talk about other sun spots that have caused minor disturbances and gives a nice little warning about not looking at the sun during this time."

1 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Feynman says... by rjh · · Score: 5

    In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (are there two Ns or just one in his name? I always forget), Richard Feynman talks about the Trinity nuclear test. He was the only person to look at the nuclear bomb directly, and suffered no permanent eye damage.

    According to Feynman (or at least, what's written in his book), it's the ultraviolet light which cooks your retinas, and that visible light simply won't do it no matter how intense it is. He took the simple precaution of watching the nuclear blast through a truck windshield, which is UV-opaque. While he had a big purple blotch in his visual field for several minutes afterwards, he did manage to watch a nuclear blast without permanent damage, which I think is pretty damn cool. :)

    From my own experience, I can submit anecdotal evidence which supports Feynman's UV-is-the-problem hypothesis. Once, while working in a laser holography lab, I wound up getting an eyeful of HeNe. While I was damn near blind in that eye for ten minutes afterwards, I had no permanent effects.

    ObWarning: I am not a competent eyecare professional, and don't try either of these stunts at home. Really. Especially not the nuclear one. :)