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Sun Releases Largest Radiation Storm in 15 Years

Posted by michael on from the tan-don't-burn dept.

what_the_frell writes "Newscientist is reporting that a large cluster of sunspots has just released huge amounts of radiation toward Earth. The crew of the ISS reportedly had to move into the bulkier Russian section of the station, while airlines rerouted planes away from the most affected regions. Look forward to varying degrees of radio & cell phone reception and some pretty cool aurora boreali until January 22, when the sunspot storm turns away from the earth, pointing its radiation elsewhere."

25 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. shucks by ike6116 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I blame global warming.

    --

    Are you secure enough in your masculinity to run 'man touch'?
  2. GPRS by Shadow_139 · · Score: 2, Funny

    God Damn..., GPRS is bad as it is.....

  3. Great by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As I have already said countless times on such occasions, now astrologers, psychics and other quacks are going to force their supersticious, geocentric, pseudoscientific, religious, flat earth, stupid mambo jumbo upon us, because those solar storms must surely have an influence on people. At least there will be something interesting to read on Randi.org, I guess.

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
    1. Re:Great by M1FCJ · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sun rotates around itself in 25 days plus a couple of hours. Look at the Sun entry at Wikipedia. Don't bother me.

  4. the republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    they have to be behind this ... they have to..

  5. Am I the only one... by PaulBu · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who reads (on ./!) "Sun releases..." and thinks about new, hopefully open-sourced, version of Solaris, not radiation? ;-)

    Paul B.

    1. Re:Am I the only one... by MrHanky · · Score: 3, Funny
      Of course not. I was thinking up imaginative +5, funnies like:

      Sun now more evil than Microsoft.

      NASA proves it. Sun is dieing.

      WTF? Is Sun switching to Pentium 4?

      Yet another product from Sun that noone wants.

      But none of these are funny enough. And the weather is almost as bad as it's been since the start of November. Oh, well, I could see the moon. That's quite extraordinary around here.

    2. Re:Am I the only one... by Issue9mm · · Score: 4, Funny

      My reply was going to be "So is 'Radiation Storm' going to be open sourced, or is this just another press release?"

      Still, not quite making the grade.

      -9mm-

    3. Re:Am I the only one... by Murphy+Murph · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Sun expresses displeasure at inauguration of Bush."

      --
      I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
    4. Re:Am I the only one... by SmurfButcher+Bob · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, my reply would be (if I were to make one)

      THERE, SEE? YOUR DAMNED GLOBAL WARMING HAS NOW SCREWED UP THE SUN!

      I won't post that, though. Too many morons would probably think, "Hey... what if that's true..."

      --- Begin Evil DoubleSig: ----
      "If English was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for these people."

      --

      help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am

  6. No by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 2, Funny

    Am I the only one... Who reads (on ./!) "Sun releases..." and thinks about new, hopefully open-sourced, version of Solaris, not radiation?

    No. And you are also not the only one if you read the story and thought "great, another IIS vulnerability."

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
  7. Northern Hemisphere Bias by Noodlenose · · Score: 2, Interesting
    As usual in Slashdot, the whole commentary is of course very northern hemisphere biased.

    We down here at the end of the world on New Zealand's South Island look forward to view the magnificent Aurora australiensis, even if it is horribly misnamed.

    1. Re:Northern Hemisphere Bias by YU+Nicks+NE+Way · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, I know. New Zealand should really have been named "A couple of small islands off the coast of Australia".

      Or did you mean that the aurorae in the SOuthern Hemisphere should have been named differently? You're right, of course -- aurora's have nothing to do with the dawn.

  8. Ahem... by NonSequor · · Score: 4, Informative

    The plural of aurora borealis would be aurorae boreales.

    --
    My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
  9. Nice Timing by vigilology · · Score: 5, Funny

    Posted by michael on 23:52 Friday 21 January 2005: "Look forward to varying degrees of radio & cell phone reception and some pretty cool aurora boreali until January 22". Wow, thanks. All of eight minutes to look forward to something and drive to a place with a nice clear sky.

  10. Wireless internet? by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do you thi@%S^$@I%ere will be any pr%^VW#$%ms with wirel$%^)*VDTY$%^#$B%^&$%ternet?

  11. Upgrade by wan-fu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Will this release take a version jump from 1.4 to 5.0?

  12. Aurorae Boreales vs Aurora Borealesees by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's curious that that pluralization to aurorae boreales has stuck around so long. It's certainly used. For example, Walt Whitman wrote

    "
    Amid pictures that dart upon me even as I speak, and glow and mix and coruscate and fade like aurorae boreales.
    --Walt Whitman, "Notes (Such as They Are) Founded on Elias Hicks"
    "

    But why is this?

    For example, "major general"
    would be pluralized to "majors general"
    when it was newly introduced into the language. The pluralization would follow its, I believe, french roots.

    As the word stayed longer in our language it would be treated as an english phrase. We would eventually start saying "major generals"

    Websters dictionary gives the following entymology for aurora borealis;

    [New Latin aurra borelis : Latin aurra, dawn + Latin borelis, northern.]

    My question is; why are we still treating 'Aurora Borealis' like a foreign phrase? In English, we certainly wouldn't say "northerns lights." Is it because it's considered a technical term so we still treat it as a latin phrase? Or is it just not popular enough in its usage to be treated as plain English?

    --

    ___
    It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    1. Re:Aurorae Boreales vs Aurora Borealesees by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 2, Informative

      1) Aurora borealises is inconvenient because of a double "s" sound. Besides, the general rule for "cactuses" instead of "cacti" and so forth is different species of cactuses. This is the same aurora, just several of them.

      2) Majors general is because major is the noun. The French plural would be majors generaux. Also, we've come to assume that "major" is the adjective and "general" is the noun, when apparently the reverse is true.

      3) In most Romance languages, including Latin, you do indeed say the literal translation of "northerns lights" or "lights northerns." English is an exception. If we pluralize it according to Latin rules, we'd have to make both plural. Besides, Aurorae borealis and aurora boreales are both awkward, although I doubt that's what you mean.

      4) We still say bacteria instead of bacteriums, right? I'm sure we'd still keep the French plural if we understood it was French and called it a "mah-JOR jey-ney-RAHL."

  13. Sweet... by MonMotha · · Score: 2, Informative

    And there's the ARRL VHF sweepstakes this weekend. Should certainly be fun. 6m was open tonight (was hearing Florida in Indiana), but things may change over the weekend.

    I'm not very familiar with VHF/UHF propagation modes. Anyone have any hints on what this may do to propagation on the VHF and up bands?

    1. Re:Sweet... by js7a · · Score: 3, Informative

      Lots of noise with occasional increases in reflectivity, but often at multiple altitudes. Sometimes auroral propagation on VHF is really sigificant, but don't count on it.

  14. Russian section -heavily guarded... by bikerguy99 · · Score: 2, Funny

    do the cosmonavts need to show their passports when crossing to the Russian section?

  15. I saw this sunspot last week by GreatDrok · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was driving down to Newcastle from Edinburgh last week (15th) wearing my usual dark glasses and there was low cloud which meant I could see the sun's disc without it blinding me. There, right in the centre, a little above the mid point, was a huge spot. I told my wife to look at it too as I thought it was interesting to see a sunspot so clearly without any visual aids other than dark glasses and some cloud. Man, that thing is big......

    --
    "I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
  16. Satellites lost... by Exocet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Didn't Intelsat just recently lose a satellite? Like, just the other day? I saw some slashdot'ers speculating on various causes (metal whiskers were my favourite) but perhaps sunspot activity had something to do with it?

    Admittedly, they lost it on the 14th, so perhaps this is a tenuous grasp at best.

    Intelsat Loses Another Satellite

    --
    Exocet Industries - Taking over the world, one computer at a
  17. Gravity Probe B affected as well. by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Informative

    Gravity Probe B (previously discussed on Slashdot here and here.) was also affected according to their latest bulletin.