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The Sun Unleashes Coronal Mass Ejection At Earth

Posted by Soulskill on from the return-fire dept.

astroengine writes "Yesterday morning, at 08:55 UT, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory detected a C3-class flare erupt inside a sunspot cluster. 100,000 kilometers away, deep within the solar atmosphere (the corona), an extended magnetic field filled with cool plasma forming a dark ribbon across the face of the sun (a feature known as a 'filament') erupted at the exact same time. It seems very likely that both eruptions were connected after a powerful shock wave produced by the flare destabilized the filament, causing the eruption. A second solar observatory, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, then spotted a huge coronal mass ejection blast into space, straight in the direction of Earth. Solar physicists have calculated that this magnetic bubble filled with energetic particles should hit Earth on August 3, so look out for some intense aurorae — a solar storm is coming."

5 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. So should I unplug all my stuff or not? by assemblerex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope this isn't some hyped up story about something the sun does regularly.

    1. Re:So should I unplug all my stuff or not? by Hadlock · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The carrington flare was an X class flare, two classes above this C class (out of three) flare. And it's near the bottom of the C class scale as well, a C-2. This is like interupting your normally scheduled program to report that there was a 2.0 earthquake in Los Angeles county... the rural portion.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
  2. Irony by blair1q · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be ironic if this solar flare knocks SOHO out of commission?

  3. Can't wait by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It just means I get to take more pictures like these.

    I wrote an application that keeps track of auroral potential WRT photography. It's public domain, and you can get the latest version of the project here. Linux, OSX. Nothing for windows, sorry. At least, not without substantial linux-like underpinnings. Love to hear about it if you did get it running under windows, of course.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  4. Re:This is not news...or news-worthy by DJRumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I actually found this far more interesting. Apparently the sunspot that created the intial flare is large enough it can be spotted with the naked eye. This sunspot is huge.

    http://spaceweather.com/

    Image of the sunspot in question: http://spaceweather.com/swpod2010/02aug10/Oleg-Toumilovitch1_strip.jpg

    SUNSPOT SUNRISE: Sunspot 1092, a key player in yesterday's Earth-directed eruptions, is big enough to see without the aid of a solar telescope. Oleg Toumilovitch "spotted" it on July 31st rising over Blairgowrie, South Africa:

    Photo details: Canon EOS-350D, ISO-800, 1/1600s exposure

    "During the first few minutes of sunrise only a fraction of the sunlight makes it's way to the observer - mostly from the red part of visible spectrum," notes Toumilovitch. "During this time large sunspots can be seen without a special solar filter." Be careful, though! Even when dimmed by clouds and haze, direct sunlight can hurt your eyes. "If you try to take a picture like this," advises Toumilovitch, "look only at the screen of your digital camera, not the optical viewfinder."