Sunspot Grows to 20 Times Size of Earth

TheHedgehog writes "A sunspot group aimed squarely at Earth has grown to 20 times the size of our planet and has the potential to unleash a major solar storm. 'The implications of this spot have scientists on the edge of their seats,' NASA said in a statement Friday. 'If the active region generates coronal mass ejections (CMEs), massive explosions with a potential force of a billion megaton bombs, it will be a fairly direct hit to Earth and its satellites and power grids.'"

Comments

Sun hits puberty.

[Bluesman]

Although it could potentially knock out some satellites, I think we should be sympathetic toward the sun as it goes through this difficult period.

Ringworld

[elmegil]

So where are the solar control panels located?

How long until The End of the World?

[dpilot]

Good thing it hasn't developed into a flare yet, otherwise this post wouldn't quite make it to the se

I knew...

[Anonymous Coward]

I should never go outside again. Now I have proof.

mega-sunspot, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

At first I thought that was the mother of all goatse.cx pics!

It's the Americans

[GCP]

With all of this intense solar storm activity we've been seeing lately, how can anyone with a properly raised consciousness doubt that human beings are upsetting the delicate solar environment? In fact, I hear Michael Moore has another documentary coming up which will PROVE that Americans in general, and Republicans especially, can be entertainingly blamed for most of it.

Re:Panic over, come out of your tinfoil shelters

[jerde]

<futile-plea-to-editors>Could you PLEASE at least _read_ the article of submitted stories, so you could notice if they're about something that's already a week out of date? PLEASE?</futile-plea-to-editors>

Sigh.

- Peter