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X17 Solar Flare Sends 2B Tons of Plasma at Earth

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the spf-5000 dept.

Dr. Zowie writes "This morning a very large solar flare erupted from a large sunspot group that is crossing the face of the Sun. The explosion sent over 2 billion tons of material hurtling across the solar system toward Earth. Movies from the SOHO spacecraft show the flare in UV and the associated coronal mass ejection in visible light as they happened, and the impact of high energy protons that the flare launched at about half the speed of light. NOAA's Space Environment Center shows that the Sun's X-ray brightness went up 100x during the flare. Expect more aurora and geomagnetic effects in the next day or two!"

12 of 473 comments (clear)

  1. hrmm.... by xao+gypsie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    this will prolly get modded down, but it looks as if Shamash, the mesopotamian sun-god is finally voicing his opinion.....

    xao

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    xao
    http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
  2. A question about the Sun's behavior by windows · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The sunspot cycle (which takes 11 years) peaked in 2000, yet there's an unusually large amount of activity of late. There was a somewhat intense solar flare a few days ago, and now this one, which is believed to be the third-largest one on record. Are there any explanations for this large amount of activity at what should be a non-peak time?

    1. Re:A question about the Sun's behavior by KD5YPT · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The 11 years sunspot cycle merely means that it is almost a guarantee that the sun will have peak sunspot activity every 11 years, it doesn't mean that there wouldn't be any activity between the two peaks.>BR> Crazy explanations... 1. Black hole collided very far away, the gravity wave it generate hits the sun. 2. A hypernova occured, and a significant amount of gamma radiatiobn just happened to hit the sun and misses the earth. 3. The sun is sentient, and was throwing a tantrum. 4. An alien decided to screw up the sunspot cycle as an experiment to see human's response to it. 5. An alien, again, this time weapon testing on the sun.

      --
      In US, you can easily buy enough major firearms to wipe out your neighbourhood but a few little fireworks are banned.
    2. Re:A question about the Sun's behavior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Are there any explanations for this large amount of activity at what should be a non-peak time?

      The funniest I heard today on coach from work was from somebody reading the article in newspaper:
      "It must be because there are holes in the air, because of pollution.".

      That was for '+5, Sad', the other is for 'Ironic'

      Talk about utter cluesness (air holes?!), but on the other hand do you really want to explain him that "air" (ozone layer?) holes don't really cause solar flares, or would you just be grateful that there is at least something that scares the logic challenged to the level, where they start thinking about preserving the environment.

      Anonymous Cowards Unite

    3. Re:A question about the Sun's behavior by Bob(TM) · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Recall that the sunspot cycle actually refers to the number of sunspots visible at a given time. As someone already pointed out, flaring can occur whether or not the actual number of visible sunspots is high

      Flares occur to relax the magnet field gradiant. This gradiant is correlated with sunspot size which, in turn, is correlated with sunspot number. Larger sunspots are correlated with solar max and are anti-correlated with solar min. But, just like earth weather throws a curveball, you can get atypical sunspot sizes and activity sometimes.

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      The little guy just ain't getting it, is he?
  3. next day or two? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why next day or two? At the half of speed of light, this stuff should hit us in about 16 minutes. So you can't really "prepare" for something like this. What am I missing?

  4. Check out the end of the CME mpg by southpolesammy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That blast on the last few frames of the CME mpg file is the CME that occured earlier today. The end of the movie looks like someone polka-dotted the screen, but from the NOAA's website, that's actually the high-charged protons from the CME hitting the camera's lens. This is one whopper of a storm.

    --
    Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
  5. Check your servers.... by grsiepka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We have probably 30-40 different Sun servers at our shop that actually are affected by this. I guess (it sounds stupid as hell but its true) certain models of Sun's 400 mhz processors (used in anything from Ultra 10's to E4500's) were not shielded properly and actually can panic when substantial CME's like this occur.

  6. Re:For those whose first response is "WTF?" by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm sure my story submission on this topic will be rejected now, but that's why I put a copy in my journal when I posted it. Too few confusing links, I guess.

    Anyway, if you're going to be a passenger on a high-altitude airplane flight you may receive chest-x-ray-level dosages of radiation. Not typically considered harmful.

    Follow the link for some easier to view pictures and a link to spaceweather.com where they have all kinds of information.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  7. Re:Way cool... by sunking2 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Insightful how? Chances are that this extremely rare and incredibly powerful event will have absolutely no impact on us here in Earth. The thought of the Sun going bonkers and doing something terrible likely doesn't cause even the experts in the field to lose a winks sleep at night. Compare that to the chances of some fringe terrorist group getting a hold of a nuke or causing some other catastrophy. Where is the money better spent again? But then again, for the [b|m]illions of dollars we could get some really cool screen savers of the Sun.

  8. Re:Braak out the RJ-45!!! by Linker3000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Better not risk it unless its STP - I see a mass panic purchase of coax! 10Base2/10Base5 rulez.

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    AT&ROFLMAO
  9. Look at the comet hit the sun! (or evaporate ....) by cybrthng · · Score: 2, Interesting
    If you watch this mpeg [http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_10_2 8/c2cme.mpg] CME Snowstorm and watch the comet in the lower right corner zoom in, you see the major eruption.

    Pretty nifty! It states a comment should vaporize before impacting, but it is still kind of ironic!

    I bet it was an alien spaceship or missile and its doomsday! :P