Solar Flare Interference From 45k Lightyears Away

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. "

Comments

Cajun Blackened Astronaut

[Detritus]

What sort of radiation dose would an astronaut receive if he was located outside the Van Allen Belt?

Solar flares were a serious concern to the Apollo astronauts, who were at risk while traveling to the Moon.

Re:Just goes to show you.

[mskfisher]

You've got that right.
If you're impressed by how these "magnetars" can affect us, check out gamma-ray bursters.

From http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mnr/st /std086:

The integrated flux of the strongest burst, GB790305, was 10^-4 ergs/cm^2 (the time structure of this pulse was consistent with a
rotating or precessing neutron star; the period is about 8 seconds).
A lethal dose to unshielded astronauts would be about 4 x 10^6 ergs/cm^2, so anyone 200,000 closer to the burster than we were had
better have good shielding.

...

If the burster was at 5 billion light years (say), the lethal radius for unshielded astronauts would be around 25,000 light years. I hope one doesn't go off in our galaxy soon.

We might get beat up real good by one of those bad boys - the Earth could get cooked if one happened right outside our neighborhood.
Ah well, what's life without a little excitement? :)

What if ..

[agonz28]

Just wondering ... What if this event had to happen much closer to earth?
say 500 Light years ..
The magnetic storm woud be thousands of times more powerful
How would that affect life here on earth...