Three More Solar Flares

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Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday November 4, 2003 @05:15AM from the wear-a-hat-outside dept.

Evil Adrian writes "Space.com reports that the sun shot off three more solar flares on Monday. This is quite a historic period for solar activity." The article breaks down the recent flares, and what the effects have been. Update: 11/05 01:57 GMT by T : cyberMalex writes "Space.com is reporting the 10th in a string of major solar flares which have been errupting from the sun over the past two weeks. "This one saturated the X-ray detectors on the NOAA's GOES satellites that monitor the Sun. The jury is therefore out on the definitive classification of the flare." "Other scientists have indicated the flare may indeed be an X20 or stronger. Only one X20 event has been seen in recent years, and it was not Earth-directed and had little effect.""

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Aurora Cam by dolo666 · 2003-11-04 05:16 · Score: 5, Interesting

From the site: Aurora Cam, which "shows the current extent and position of auroral activity in the northern hemisphere, based on measurements taken during the most recent polar pass of the NOAA POES satellite."

Does this recent solar activity make any of you feel uneasy? I mean... is it time for Bruce Willis to suit up again and save the planet? Nine X-class solar flares... eeeek. That has to be bad.
1. Re:Aurora Cam by zephc · 2003-11-04 06:10 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  "Does this recent solar activity make any of you feel uneasy?"
  
  No no, it's a perfectly natural, healthy thing for a star of his age to... want to experiment in self-gratification. You see, a star that age is still learning more about itself, and should be encouraged to do so, in a healthy way. Of course, our star may be doing this a bit too often right now, but it is a novelty that will soon wear off, and once he has become more accustomed to his self, he may do it a lot less. In the meantime, we here on earth must not make our Sun feel ashamed of this, merely support him, and try not to get hit in the face.
  
  --
  "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
From the article by UrgleHoth · 2003-11-04 05:19 · Score: 5, Funny

The Sun cut loose with three severe flares in less than 24 hours through Monday morning

cut loose? Is thr journalist trying to make a gastrointestinal metaphor here?

--

Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
It's not the # of flares .. it's by jaxdahl · 2003-11-04 05:20 · Score: 5, Informative

It's the size of these flares that's unusual. Never have astronomers seen 2 Jupiter sized sunspots tranversing the sun at the same time. The number of sunspots is about normal for this time in the 11 year solar cycle. Here's a nice summary page: http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html
Re:Biblical by mr_z_beeblebrox · 2003-11-04 05:20 · Score: 5, Funny

I wish I had my Revelations better memorized.

"And the horsemen spoke "Behold 9 solar prominences" And the Earth was smited by an X15.
Re:Historic Period? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-11-04 05:27 · Score: 5, Informative

Scientists have been using beryllium content in icebergs to trace the general prominence of sunspots and their activity over the last 1150 years. This activity exceeds any on that record as well.
Bennifer by HarveyBirdman · 2003-11-04 05:34 · Score: 5, Funny

What did we have to sacrifice to prevent this again?? i can't read mayan..
Oddly enough, we have to sacrifice Ben and JLo.
The Mayan line in question is "Big head, snake, rock shaped thing, potato with teeth, something that looks like a broken Trane air conditioning unit, something with three legs and four ears, a bigger potato with teeth and breasts, Jabba The Hut, another big head, a pile of little tiny heads, a medium sized head with a smaller head next to it, an aborted fetus someone inflated with an air pump."
The rough translation is "annoying couple (in unity) with mighty hair and (ass) who commit crime of that (terrible) Gigli."
Yes, there's a heiroglyph for "Gigli".
Hey, they were WAY ahead of their time.
Related Link

--
--- Ban humanity.
Re:Historic Period? by Gulthek · 2003-11-04 05:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

We have samples from icebergs measuring beryllium-10, which give us a good picture of solar activity for the past couple thousand years or so.

Aside from that, it's a historic period in solar flares simply because we haven't seen it happen before. Just because we don't know how common this occurence is in the full grand scheme of things, doesn't mean that it isn't noteworthy when we see it for the first time!
Re:Biblical by Theatetus · 2003-11-04 07:07 · Score: 5, Informative

First off: why?

Secondly, it's Revelation or if you prefer Apocalypse (which is just Greek for "Revelation"). Books back then didn't have titles, and this one simply comes from the first word of the book.

Thirdly, it's a very thinly-disguised mid-2nd-century political invective about the fall of Rome and Judaism and the establishment of a Christian hegemony in eastern Europe and western Asia, not the end of the world.

Fourthly, in most modern Christian's minds it has been hopelessly confused with Daniel and John's letters (for example, most people you ask will tell you that Revelation mentions the Anti-Christ; it does not. The only biblical references to "antichrist" are in John's letters, and it's "antichrists" not "The Antichrist").

Fifthly, the reference to the sun in Revelation is:
"I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth" (Rev. 6:12)
which is the exact opposite of what the sun is doing right now.
Sixthly and lastly, memorizing books about imaginary tribal deities strikes me as an immense waste of time, but if it works for you, more power to you.

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All's true that is mistrusted