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Solar Flare Interference From 45k Lightyears Away

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the duck-the-flares-are-coming dept.

Wan2Be writes "Nasa has a story about a solar flare on Aug. 27 that affected our planet with radio bounces and blackouts - but it wasn't from old Sol, it was from SGR 1900+14, a neutron star about 45,000 light years away. "

2 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Have they got the numbers right ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, since we are talking about electromagnetic radiation, the energy will drop with the sqaure of the distance, not the cube. This might impact your calculations just a little bit.

    - GK

  2. Re:Cajun Blackened Astronaut by Viadd · · Score: 4, Informative
    What sort of radiation dose would an astronaut receive if he was located outside the Van Allen Belt?
    I worked it out once. This particular SGR burst would have given an astronaut the equivalent of a dental X-ray. Pretty potent for half-way across the Galaxy, but not a health hazard. And the Van Allen Belts wouldn't have provided any shielding because the X-rays/gamma-rays are uncharged photons, which aren't affected by Earth's magnetosphere.

    Solar flares are most deadly because of the proton flux, which would be blocked, but which travels much slower than lightspeed. If you see X-rays from a solar flare, it tells you that you have an hour or so to get into a shielded environment before the big storm hits.