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Flare Sends A Gigaton Of Solar Detritus Toward Earth

Posted by timothy on from the ball-of-incandescent-gas dept.

Dr. Zowie writes: "This morning at about 10:00 UT, a major explosion occured on the Sun. The solar X-ray output went up by over 1,000 times. About a billion tons of material are speeding toward Earth at over a million miles per hour, and should hit sometime in the next couple of days. Low latitude aurorae and anomalies in radio communications and power service are likely consequences. You can see the event from the SOHO spacecraft's home page -- images and movies are here. In the movies, watch for the burst of radiation hitting SOHO about 13:00 UT -- that's a high energy proton storm caused by the flare itself. You can also see the earthly effects of a similar event from last year."

2 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Re:should hit sometime in the next couple of days? by Yazeran · · Score: 5, Interesting
    In theory yes, but remember that this plasma is charged particles and such interact with magnetic fields. The inner solar system is a mess of magnetic fields. Most of these are made by the sun itself, and as such it is not a homogenious field! The sun has no fixed magnetic poles like earth or a bar magnet, thus the solar magnetic field is in a constant state of flux. This insteady magnetic environment will affect the speed and direction of the plasmas ejected from the sun, giving rise to large uncertainties in the arival time.


    Yours Yazeran


    Plan: to go to Mars one day with a hammer.

  2. Re:Glad we have a magnetosphere by Yazeran · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Actually Venus do not have any magentic field shielding it from the suns particle bombardment. This gives rise to some interesting interactions in the upper atmosphere of Venus.


    The reason for the absence of a magnetic field in Venus is first that it rotates soo slowly (actually it rotates 'backwards' as the orbital angular speed is greater than the rotational angular speed. The second reason for absence of magnetic fields is that the surface temperature is above the Curie tempeature for most magnetic minerals, thus any remanent magnetic field that might have been preserved from Venus earlier life is erased.


    The remanent magnetisation in some ferrous minerals is also the reason for the Moons small magnetic field, evidenting, that the moon had a planetary magnetic field like earth in it's earlier life when the lavalakes (the mares) were emplaced.


    Yours Yazeran


    Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.