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X7-class Solar Event Detected
SlySpy007 writes "Spaceweather.com is reporting on an enormous solar event which took place earlier this evening. This event, emanating from the gigantic sunspot 720, registered as an X7-class event, and increased the 24-hour probability of a minor geomagnetic storm to 60% in mid-latitudes (70% in high latitudes). The GOES-12 satellite happened to catch this event with its SXI instrument (Solar X-ray Imager), and there's a pretty gnarly animation of the event from 720 over at the SXI site. I know this is gonna cause havoc for plenty of missions in orbit now; wonder if we'll see any disturbance here on terra firma." Another reader points to ground-based monitoring stations detecting a surge in cosmic rays at the time of the flare.
Oh no! Reed Richards, his wife Susan, brother-in-law Johnny, and test pilot Ben Grimm just took off in Dr. Richards' rocketship! They didn't know about the solar storm. I hope they'll be all right!
Was there meant to be an earth shattering kaboom?
That's okay, as long as you didn't point it at a plane.
Which is the greater risk - leaving our tinfoil hats on and having them focus the effects of this in our brains, or taking them off and subjecting ourselves to mind control from the black helicopter people?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Note the time this story was submitted -- the exact time that Dubya's second term starts. Obviously ${Diety} is pissed off about Bush's re-election.
Solar flares are $[Diety]'s fireworks. $[Diety] is obviously celebrating it all.
(It's all about the spin. Karl Rove would be proud of me... and that makes me feel so incredibly dirty right now. Must clean off stain of Bush/Rove appreciation... IT BURNS!!!!)
-Jellisky
Try this link instead. It is a javascript+JPEGs in high-res movie, works better than the link submitted in the story.
This got me wondering what would happpen if the flare hit the Moon directly while astronauts/moon base residents were there. The following story explains that any moon base would have to be built several meters beneath the surface to protect residents from cosmic rays and solar flares.http://www.oregonl5.org/lbrt/l5aaa88b.html Looks like the Police should have been singing about "Walking In the Moon"....
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
...that X7 is a rather moderate eruption? For reference, we routinely see eruptions throughout the solar cycle at least that big, and many which are many times greater. Google around and you'll find an eruption which occurred in November of 2003 which was dubbed the 'biggest solar flare ever recorded'. That was an X28.
More details here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3251481.stm.