Coronal Mass Ejection Hits Earth

astroengine writes "On Tuesday, the Earth was hit by a coronal mass ejection (CME), triggering a 'moderate' geomagnetic storm, igniting aurorae at high latitudes. The CME in question was launched from the sun early on Sunday and space weather scientists predicted its arrival on Aug. 3 — the vast magnetic bubble of solar plasma arrived on schedule."

Comments

Thank goodness there's no damage

[krzysz00]

There are three bits of good news in that article.

1. 1. There was no damage to electronics or satellites, so all of the /. community's geeky shiny is safe
2. 2. There will be really impressive light displays (which I hope someone will post on YouTube
3. 3. We are developing the ability to forecast "space weather", thus leading to a new field, astrometeorology

However, the bad news is that satellites might go if a bigger storm comes along.

Re:The good and the bad

[m.ducharme]

Did you see the Star-Trek nerdery above? I don't think you have anything to be ashamed of compared to that (unless of course you were one of the participants...)