Space Telescope Catches Monster Flare

gollum123 writes, "NASA's Swift satellite has seen a giant flare explode from a nearby star. Our sun also flares when twisted magnetic field lines in the solar atmosphere suddenly snap — but this was on a far larger scale, perhaps 100 million times as strong. The energy released by the explosion on II Pegasi was equivalent to about 50 quintillion atomic bombs. If the Sun were ever to produce such an outburst, it would almost certainly cause a mass extinction on Earth. II Pegasi is a binary system 135 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Its two stars are close, only a few stellar radii apart; as a result, tidal forces cause both stars to spin quickly, rotating in lockstep once in seven days compared to the Sun's 28-day rotation period. Fast rotation is thought to be conducive to strong stellar flares."

Comments

Reported on Election Day, Coincidence?

[lecithin]

It's Election Day, so I get into work early, before lunch even. The phone rings. Shit!

I turn the page on the excuse sheet. "COSMIC SOLAR FLARES" stares out at me. I'd better read up on that. Two minutes later
I'm ready to answer the phone.

"Hello?" I say.

The Voting machines are messed up, We can't vote!!!

"Ah, yes. Well, there's been some cosmic solar activity this morning, it always disrupts electronics..." I say, sweet as a sugar pie.

"Huh? But I my friends could vote in Itasca County"

"Yes, that's entirely possible, cosmic solar activity is very unpredictable in it's effects. Why just a few years ago, we had some votes just dissappear from a guys total during the middle of a recount!"

Re:Reported on Election Day, Coincidence?

[ErikTheRed]

It's Election Day, so I get into work early, before lunch even. The phone rings. Shit!

I turn the page on the excuse sheet. "COSMIC SOLAR FLARES" stares out at me. I'd better read up on that. Two minutes later I'm ready to answer the phone.

"Hello?" I say.

The Voting machines are messed up, We can't vote!!!

"Ah, yes. Well, there's been some cosmic solar activity this morning, it always disrupts electronics..." I say, sweet as a sugar pie.

"Huh? But I my friends could vote in Itasca County"

"Yes, that's entirely possible, cosmic solar activity is very unpredictable in it's effects. Why just a few years ago, we had some votes just dissappear from a guys total during the middle of a recount!"

Offtopic?

Too bad the mods don't understand BOFH excuse calendar humor. But you did leave off the part where voters for the wrong party have their opinions corrected via an ingeneously improvised "patch" to the voting machine involving a cattle prod....

the sun: a weapon of mass extinction

[User 956]

The energy released by the explosion on II Pegasi was equivalent to about 50 quintillion atomic bombs. If the Sun were ever to produce such an outburst, it would almost certainly cause a mass extinction on Earth.

My fellow Americans, our only option is clear: We need to preemptively invade the sun.

Old news

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a 135 year old story!

Images and more Information

[iONiUM]

Here is the NASA link to this item:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/mon ster_flare.html

I really wish slashdot would just link the real news item instead of the crappy ones it always seems to find. There wasn't even an image on the one they linked.

Re:Images and more Information

[tunguska1908]

Note... the images are not from the event described in the article. While very informative, they are images of flares on the Sun. The event that is described in the article is rather distant to get that type of imagery.

Re:WMD?

[Kingrames]

I can just picture you in a D&D game.

DM: "you have been killed by the explosion of one billion nuclear bombs."

You: "Russian or Korean?"