Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Tsunami Spotted on the Surface of the Sun

Posted by samzenpus on from the mother-of-all-disaster-movies dept.

BigBadBus writes "The BBC is reporting that NASA's twin spacecraft designed to obtain stereo images of the Sun have recorded a Solar Tsunami. The feature includes a fascinating movie of the images captured."

11 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. But... by langelgjm · · Score: 5, Funny

    No sound? Lame...

    --
    "Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
    1. Re:But... by evanbd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The solar wind has a pressure, and you can measure it. And it changes. You could interpret that pressure as sound. It would be quiet by terrestrial standards, but an event like this would definitely make noise.

      Of course, your microphone wouldn't bear much resemblance to a terrestrial one; measuring pressures that low is a tricky thing.

    2. Re:But... by evwah · · Score: 5, Funny

      too bad you can't hear the woosh sound of that joke going over your head in space either

    3. Re:But... by S.O.B. · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you play it backwards you hear, "Paul is dead, Paul is dead".

      --
      Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
  2. Global warming? by reboot246 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Probably caused by global warming. Everything else seems to be.

    (tongue in cheek)

    1. Re:Global warming? by jimmux · · Score: 5, Funny

      This is nothing. Wait until the sun's ice caps melt, then we'll be in trouble.

    2. Re:Global warming? by Krusso88 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe Al Gore will have a Live Sun concert to raise enough funds to prevent future tSUNnami's

  3. Fun on the Sun by Revenger75 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's go mega-surfin' Dude! It will be rad(iation)! I'll bring the 3.0x10^8 SPF sunblock, you bring the Unobtainium surfboards, and Cowboy Neil will bring the beer.

  4. Obligatory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What would it sound like, anyway? Hmm, what would a wave of gas sound like?

    First, did it come out of Uranus?
  5. The Martian Asks: by Somegeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!"

    --
    And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
  6. Re:Special Effects by orangepeel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm the same way. One of the things that gives me pause is when a publication states that something is "hotter than the surface of the sun."

    I always ask myself a question whenever I read or hear that line: what surface? Where the heck do you define the "surface" in the case of a star?

    I assume that somewhere at the sun's core you've got some type of phenomenally wacky material, and from there on out you're just looking at an energized soupy plasma that just gets progressively less and less dense. Even if you get to some point where somebody decides the pressure suddenly becomes worthy of "surface" status, it's still not going to be anything like a surface in the minds of most normal humans. The "surface" is roiling, boiling, and exploding with astronomical energies non-stop. That seems to me like trying to describe an exploding can of aerosol cheese as a cohesive solid, and I dare say we all know from experience how ridiculous that would be.

    To me, referring to the surface of the sun seems akin to invoking the question, "what's the length of the coastline of England?" My answer would be, "on what scale?" But I seem to be the only one who feels that way, so perhaps I'm just in the dark over something. Has someone figured out some cool relationship between the gravitational ability of the sun to hold on to its own matter compared with the average energy of a certain layer of plasma or something? I don't know. I never hear it talked about. All I ever hear is that simple phrase, "the surface of the sun," used in article after article ... like it's so damn obvious and how much of a moron I must be to stumble over it every time.

    Sometimes I suspect that someone, somewhere, with god-like precision simply declared one day, "no, this distance outward from the core represents the surface, and fuck you if you doubt me".

    *shrug*

    --
    Whoever designed level 61 in Frozen Bubble is a sadistic bastard.