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Coronal Mass Ejection Hits Earth

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the duck-and-cover dept.

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."

7 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Don't Give In! by VoxMagis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn it, we need to shoot back. Don't let the Sun see us flinch, make sure that we retaliate in kind!

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    -- I really need to bleed off some of this /. karma.
  2. Awesome. by DWMorse · · Score: 5, Funny

    Galactic porn. Very awesome. Earth was left glowing and satisfied.

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    There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
  3. Everyone STOP MOVING! by Shanrak · · Score: 5, Funny

    The sun just lost a contact.

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    This post may or may not contain cancer causing materials.
  4. Thank goodness there's no damage by krzysz00 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

  5. Hey Oli, what's the weather outlook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    SPACE WEATHER!!!

  6. Re:Reminds me of a Star Trek: TNG episode... by Itninja · · Score: 5, Funny

    My nerd detector just exploded.

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    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
  7. The good and the bad by dtmos · · Score: 5, Informative

    The additional bit of good news (if you're a VHF amateur radio operator, or FM or TV broadcast DXer) is that there should be interesting propagation of VHF radio signals refracting off of the aurora, perhaps as far as 2000 km. The bad news is that the same ionization that refracts the VHF signals attenuates HF signals, so if you're an HF amateur radio operator or short-wave listener, the paths over the poles will be closed for a few days.

    I guess the additional bad news if you're a VHF broadcaster (FM or over-the-air TV) is that you can expect a lot of calls from the public complaining about poor reception, as signals from far away interfere with yours. :-/