Slashdot Mirror
Two Huge Holes In the Sun Spotted
An anonymous reader writes "Japanese scientists have spotted two huge holes on the sun's magnetic field, and it appears there is some reason to be concerned about. The holes, called coronal holes, are gateways for solar material and gas to spill out into space, according to space.com. The gaps in the sun's magnetic field make a hole through its atmosphere, letting gas out, NASA has said."
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/news20110111-corona-hole.html
more info...
Why is there reason to be "concerned"? It is an interesting find, but that solar gas won't do much to harm Earth.
I have a hole, gas comes out, but it doesn't do much to harm Earth.
Holes in the sun! Sun losing gas to space! "Probably time is finally taking a toll on the benevolent star, which has been toiling hard for millennia!"
I wouldn't exactly call this science journalism. No explanation why, what will happen, etc... The only link on the article is labeled "NASA", but points to the main page of this crappy website. To their credit they have a photo of the sun, but is from another solar space mission unrelated to the article.
Hey editors, how on earth did this awful link get onto the main page?
Actually, I cannot find that danger either in the linked article, not in the NASA article sustik linked to in a comment. The latter just says that we have to expect more auroras when the gas stream hits us "in a few days" (and that article was from Jan 11, so it probably has hit us quite some time ago, apparently without major damages).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
The way I see it, unless one of those holes were pointed straight at us for an extended time, which is impossible due to difference in the orbital velocity of Earth and the rotational velocity of the Sun, we have nothing to worry about, and even then we'd only get a few blanked-out satellites.
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
Don't freak out that there's now an opening in the corona. Freak out when a celestial lime slice gets wedged it.
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
Ah 2012 - thought the Mayans said Mother earth was going to laugh and reformat herself. Looks like Father Sun has a different choice for cooking us.
Ah 2012 - thought the Mayans said Mother earth was going to laugh and reformat herself. Looks like Father Sun has a different choice for cooking us.
Mayans never said anything about 2012 doomsday, they just have a calender that cycles every 1,872,000 days. It's like aliens believing the universe will explode because this primitive Western human tribes calender only goes up to the 31st of December and then suddenly.......ends......
I really hate this urban legend, read the wikipedia article on the Mayan Calender.
Basically they had the Tzolk'in which provided a 260 day year (13 months of 20 days) which was used to plan ceremonies and events. Because that doesn't match up with the length of the year they developed the Haab which lasts 365 days this provided 18 months consisting of 20 days, with 5 "nameless" days.
However neither of these calenders providing a way of keeping track of the year, so the mayans worked out the year by using the Tzolk'in and Haab calenders, since those dates reset every 52 years the Mayans called that a Calender Round.
The Long Count was created so dates which occurred outside of the 52 year cycle could be stated, the end of the world myth exists because 1 Bakturn consists of 144,000 days. On December 21st 2012 this bakturn cycle ends, that doesn't mean the world will end to the Mayans the end of such a cycle is a time of celebration.
In short the Mayan calender system is a giant overly complicated mess.
Extremely badly written article. The coronal holes over the south and north pole of the sun have basically always been there, and been predicted by solar wind models for at least 50 years. The news here is simply that the hinode spacecraft managed to image them conclusively for the first time.
No reason to be concerned. Trust me, I'm a solar scientist.
Visit spaceweather.com daily for a month or two, and keep an eye on the various Sun images on the left side. One is used to point out coronal holes, and you'll quickly realize how common they are. This may be related to the approaching solar maximum, though don't quote me on that.
I'm much more concerned about flare and mass ejection frequency. With all the satellites and poorly-shielded electrical circuits we rely upon, one or two wicked ejections aimed at Earth could turn a lot of gear into expensive junk.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
So our sun is venting fuel.. Probably didn't like the 15% Ethenol in it.. If the sun sees fit to fertalize space with it - odds are my car won't like it either.
It's the same old thing as yesterday.
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
It wont even create a good aurora. We need a good M type flare for that. Bummer. The wife really wants to see a good aurora someday. We live to close to the city lights for any good viewing. We would have to drive out into the country. Well since we are approaching solar maximum, we might have to take a drive in the next year or two. Here is the link that describes the events: www.spaceweather.com "BEHEMOTH SUNSPOT 1158: Sunspot 1158 is growing rapidly (48 hour movie) and crackling with C-class solar flares. The active region is now more than 100,000 km wide with at least a dozen Earth-sized dark cores scattered beneath its unstable magnetic canopy. Earth-directed eruptions are likely in the hours ahead." Class M flares are good for viewing. Class X is where we lose electricity or radio/satellites.
So what is so special about the point of the orbit it happens to reach at that time? It's not even the perihel (closest point to the sun), which comes a few days later, nor the winter solstice (when the tilt of the earth's axis aligns with the radial vector of the orbit), which is shortly before Christmas. There's absolutely nothing remarkable about the point in orbit at 31st of December.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
After decades of 'free' energy being stolen from the sun, the sun has finally had enough & started a protest. If the 'free' energy theft continues, according to sources close to the sun who wish to remain unnamed, then it will start sending DRM takedown notices to all solar panel owners. The sun's legal team insists that solar power harvesting is breaking the physical encryption it is using & is therefore covered by the DMCA.
The sun could not be reached for direct comment.