Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Massive Explosion On the Sun

Posted by Soulskill on from the reminds-me-that-our-sun-is-a-molten-deathsplosion-factory dept.

Endoflow2010 sends word of an enormous eruption that occurred on the Sun this morning. Phil Plait describes it thus: "What you’re seeing here is a solar flare (an enormous explosion of pent-up magnetic energy) coupled with a prominence (a physical eruption of gas from the surface). This event blasted something like a billion tons of material away from the Sun. Note the size of it, too: while it started from a small region on the Sun’s surface, it quickly expanded into a plume easily as big as the Sun itself! I’d estimate its size at well over a million kilometers across." The attached video is well worth watching.

27 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. In orbit.. by intellitech · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can't wait to see what effect this has on those electronic things in orbit..

    --
    vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
  2. Better video by chebucto · · Score: 5, Informative

    You need to see both to get a fuller appreciation of the scale, but the 2nd video in the article is more impressive, IMHO:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpkXhlPIINQ

    --
    The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
  3. Comment from the space.com article by uigrad_2000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "It's nothing we really have to worry about," Young said in his video. "It's just really, really beautiful."

    Translation: You can begin panicking now!

    --
    Free unix account: freeshell.org
  4. Be careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before you watch the video PLEASE find a way to do so without looking at it directly. A pinhole viewer (http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/pinhole3.html) will allow you to view your AVI files without suffering damage to your eyesight.

  5. Timespan and other details by JoshuaZ · · Score: 2

    This video is speed up- the video contains about 12 hours of footage. Note also that given where the sun is in the solar cycle we can likely expect more similar events soon. If any of them end up heading more directly in the direction of Earth it could interfere badly with electronics, especially in satellites. But we haven't gotten a really bad flare since the 19th century, but then there were events that even interfered with telegraph lines. And our current electronics are a lot more sensitive than stuff they had back then.

    1. Re:Timespan and other details by Ruke · · Score: 2

      Back in 1989, we had a solar flare that knocked out Quebec's transmission system, spread auroras down to Texas, and made people panic, thinking that the Soviet Union had launched a first strike.

      Our electronics are more sensitive in a few senses; however, this does not mean they're more prone to failure. In the past 6 years or so, reliability standards have been put into place for the transmission and distribution systems in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We're actually much better prepared for such an event now then we were 20 years ago.

    2. Re:Timespan and other details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If any of them end up heading more directly in the direction of Earth it could interfere badly with electronics, especially in satellites.

      Question to anyone who knows -

      Is it impossible to defend against this in any way other than pre-emptively? I would assume that usually, by the time we're aware of a massive flare, its effects would have already passed us by? It's not as if our monitoring equipment transmits faster than light, unless the detrimental effects of the blast moves slower than light.

      What I"m trying to say is, if I have a roll of foil, can I put it on my computer AFTER the flare or should I make a project of turning my computer room into a foil faraday cage now?

    3. Re:Timespan and other details by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've worked in the NOC for 2 major telcos. Neither has any plan for solar flare events. When I brought it up I was literally laughed at. When I pulled down NASA's space weather data that rates solar flares effects on earth, correlated it with our network alarms and was able to show that given a certain size flare we were almost guaranteed to have a 10% increase in network alarms... a Huge spike only eclipsed by major Thunderstorms and hurricanes, I was laughed at even harder.

      It's not profitable to plan for rare events. It's profitable to plan for common events and let the insurance cover the catastrophes. The public interest be damned.

    4. Re:Timespan and other details by Ruke · · Score: 2

      When was this? I'm talking about the NERC standards that went from being opt-in to mandatory in, uh, June 2008, maybe? I'm not familiar with all of the CIP, EOP, and PRC standards; maybe there's nothing in there specifically to deal with a solar event. However, any time your transmission is down for an extended amount of time, potential fines do start piling up. It's gotten damned expensive to not be prepared for an emergency.

    5. Re:Timespan and other details by Mt._Honkey · · Score: 3, Informative

      We often see them coming thanks to satellites like the one that made these movies. It takes hours-days for the flare to get from the sun to Earth, so there is time to prepare. I think it's hard to be sure exactly how hard any given flare will hit the Earth, though.

      I'm not sure if your foil-on-computer question is an analogy or not. On the personal scale I expect that your regular surge protector is sufficient. The disaster planning needs to be centered on the large-scale power grid, because it's the long power lines that build up the overvoltage, not your living room. We're not worried as much about your computer as we are half the power substations on earth exploding within an hour of each other.

      --

      Don't Bogart the fish sticks
    6. Re:Timespan and other details by jasnw · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is sad but true. I've been in the space weather business for 40 years, and was involved with the aftermath of the large geomagnetic storm that took out the power generator in Quebec mentioned in another post. There was quite a flurry of meetings with various energy agencies about what was to be done. Bottom line was that the space weather groups were asking that the power industry pay a lot of money for predictions and warnings that were not of the highest reliability (another sad-but-true fact). After the risk-management boys got done crunching the numbers, the power industry decided that it was cheaper to ignore the problem and live with the fact that they might lose a generator every 11 years or so. The insurance folks will pick up the monetary tab, and the Great Unwashed Public (also known as "the customers") will shiver in their dark unheated homes until things get fixed and like it. As long as these events can be legally treated as unpredictable "acts of God" there is no impetus for the power companies to do anything about them, free market be damned.

  6. Re:This is a reminder... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Informative

    You think that's bad, wait until you read about Gamma-Ray Bursts. A big pulse of gamma radiation which - if one occurred near enough to us (say, in the same galaxy and pointing in our direction) would wipe out all life on Earth. Gamma rays travel at the speed of light. We wouldn't see it coming. There might be one hitting the edge of the atmosphere right now.

    Too late to use those mod points...

  7. The Onion by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 2

    I know...solar prominence...etc....but damned if that headline doesn't sound like something out of The Onion.

    --
    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
  8. It's dead, Jim by gmuslera · · Score: 2, Funny

    Noone can survive such explosion, not even the Sun. Maybe won't be apparent by now, but we will see the consequences of this next year.

  9. Re:It farted by dimeglio · · Score: 2

    Unfortunately, gravity made most of it fall back on it's face.

    --
    Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
  10. Re:Doesn't look as big as the sun itself to me by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you want a more complete coverage of the event (not to mention a few more tasty videos) then there is a much better write up at The Sun Today .org which you should take a peek at.

    --
    Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
  11. morning? by Imnimo · · Score: 2

    Events taking place on the surface of the sun should not be described as "morning." It's always noon on the sun. Duh.

  12. Re:SEEMS PAR FOR THE COURSE !! by digitig · · Score: 5, Funny

    A billion tons of material blown away.

    But "warming" is caused by "CO2".

    Well... if the sun were not there, global warming would not be an issue. I'll grant you that.

    --
    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  13. Re:IPv6 by Yvan256 · · Score: 2

    And when the Sun dies, we can all blame the Oracle.

  14. Re:Network disruptions? by Nadaka · · Score: 2

    You plan on nuking a giant multi billion year old nuclear explosion because it had a fluctuation its its explosivity? Good luck with that.

  15. NASA source footage by WallaceAndGromit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Go here and you can view animations of the sun using all the different telescopes on SDO...

    http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/aiahmi/rangeform.php

    Instructions to view the subject solar flare: select browse by date range, enter 2011-06-07 00:00:00 as the beginning and 2011-06-07 12:00:00 as the end dates, select movie as the display, select resolution 1024x1024, and set nth = 1, submit and enjoy. Also, you can play with the different telescopes.

    --
    Name: Mr. Anon E Mouse; SSN: 555-55-5555
  16. Re:It farted by Capsaicin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Shit" is the past tense of "shit".

    The simple past of 'to shit; is, in fact 'shat,' as in "the man shat his pants." 'To shit' is an example of a germanic strong verb which forms the past by use of an ablaut, such as: sing/sang; spit/spat; sit/sat; shit/shat ... etc. Were it weak verb it would form it's simple past with the addition of a suffix, ie. shitted.

    "Shat" just sounds fucking stupid.

    It sounds stupid to you. That is not only because of your poor grasp of the rules of grammar, but because those who use the word in everyday conversation are not necessarily any better educated than you are. Thus you will likely not have heard the word used grammatically.

    To people who have had normative grammar rammed into their skulls, sentences such as, "The man sit on the bench." or "The man shit his pants." or "I remember when he sing a very sad song" or, to use a weak verb, "that guy fuck me over bad" sound, not merely "fucking stupid," but just plain wrong.

    --
    Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
  17. Re:It farted by bstender · · Score: 2

    it would form it's simple past

    ohhh, so close.

    --
    look sig is kool
  18. Damn the terrorists! by microbee · · Score: 2

    I knew the assassination of Osama bin Laden wouldn't be the end of it.

  19. Re:What video by Bandwidth_ · · Score: 2

    The best videos, processed and raw, are available in javascript, flash, and mpg from the lockheedmartin/solarsoft group that handles SDO AIA: http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_110606_235609_98013/www/

    If you look at the proton monitors in L1 http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ace/SIS_24h.html and earth geosynchronous http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/Proton.gif orbit there is a very suggestive correlation between this flare and a flux of high energy protons! The timing is about right and the flare itself is positioned such that the parker spiral http://spaceweather.uma.es/solarstorms_files/figura1bc.JPG of the interplanetary magnetic field http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2434rAbImf0 would put earth in sun spot 1226's path http://i.imgur.com/ZIffl.gif. This tight coupling of timing between the flare time (~06:30:00) and proton arrival (07:00:00) suggests not a coronal mass ejection (that takes days) but instead of weakly relativistic particle beam traveling down the magnetic field lines to earth in only tens of minutes. This interpetation is confirmed by the UMA automatic solar energetic particle forcaster http://spaceweather.uma.es/forecastpanel.htm and later in the day mentioned by a press release http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-unusual-solar-storm-disrupt-earth.html.

  20. Re:It farted by lobsterGun · · Score: 3, Informative

    I used 'shat' in a scrabble tournament. It passed challenge. I assure you, it is a word.

  21. Re:This is a reminder... by Twinbee · · Score: 2

    Would the thickness of the Earth serve as a shield for life on the 'lucky' half of the earth?

    --
    Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc