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Scientists Need Volunteers To Look At the Sun
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that Royal Observatory's 'Solar Stormwatch' needs volunteers to help scientists spot Sun storms — known as coronal mass ejections — before they cause damage on Earth. 'When you look up at the Sun obviously it's too bright to look at properly,' says Dr. Marek Kukula of the Royal Observatory, but 'with special instruments and telescopes you can see there's all sorts of stuff going on.' NASA already monitors the Sun using two 'STEREO' spacecraft that produce 3D images of earth's nearest star, which can show the trajectory of these explosions. However, the sheer amount of data means NASA's scientists are unable to analyze the data as closely as they need — which is where the world's Internet population comes in. After a brief tutorial, users get access to the actual 3-D images taken by the STEREO spacecraft. If a user believes they have spotted the beginnings of a solar storm, they can bring it to the attention of scientists. 'Every little bit counts,' says Kukula. 'I've spoken to the scientists involved and they all agree that even if you log-on and just do it for a few hours, get bored and never touch it again it's all really useful — and helps them to do their work.'"
Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun.
(But Mama, that's where the fun is!)
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
"Scientists Need Volunteers To Look At the Sun"
There's a spot burning a hole in my eye from just reading that title..
O.K. I'll take the night watch.
Coronal mass ejections? I think I saw a clip of that on redtube.com.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
You were lucky to have hydrogen. In my day all we had was a plasma of free protons and electrons and background radiation, and we LIKED it!
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
That is what I thought of immediately, but then they are not rocket scientists, oh wait...
What happens when the Oracle System's Star goes Supernova ? Is it going to SPARC?...Is Coffee going to be supplied?...I haven't read much of the comments, but am I the only one to notice the subject icon on this story is the wrong Sun.
Good lord, has that Ellison fellow gone out and purchased the real sun now? Will he buy the moon next?