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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured what appears to be a disturbance in the force - on the sun. Astronomers say Sunday morning's eruption sent out a blast of electrically charged particles that should create brilliant auroral displays on Tuesday night.
"This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on August 4th," astronomer Leon Golub said in a statement from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."
Fortunately, it's not all that big of an eruption: The X-ray blast rated a C3 on the Space Weather Prediction Center's scale, which suggests there'll be no disruption for power grids, satellites, astronauts on the International Space Station or navigation services on airplanes. Stronger space storms can have more serious impacts. In 1989, for example, a huge solar outburst sparked a nine-hour electrical blackout in Quebec - and a more moderate blast that occurred in April apparently turned a telecom satellite into a zombie.
The biggest impact from Sunday's solar storm is expected to be that killer light show: Observers in the northern tier of the United States and similar latitudes should be on the watch for rippling waves of reddish or greenish light in the night sky. And who knows? The northern lights have been known to dip down to Colorado or even farther south on occasion.
Such displays are caused by the interaction between solar particles and Earth's own magnetic field. It's hard to predict exactly when the wave will hit - but you'll maximize your chances of seeing something by getting far away from city lights and having a clear view to the north.
The sun is coming off a low in its 11-year activity cycle, and Sunday's eruption serves as another sign that things are finally picking up. SpaceWeather.com says the event apparently started with a flare from a site known as sunspot 1092, the only significant sunspot group currently facing Earth. At about the same time, the observatory detected a huge magnetic filament of material rising up from the sun's northern hemisphere.
It's not rock-solid certain that there's a connection between the flare and the filament, which were separated by 400,000 miles. But It looks as if a "solar tsunami" swept across the sun's surface from the flare site toward the filament zone, propelling the hot stuff into space.
"In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun," SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips said.
Is this the start of something big? Some doomsayers are worried that the sun is on schedule for a 2012 (or 2013) apocalypse - but all the signs so far is that our nearest star is in the midst of a thoroughly normal cycle. As the sun heads toward Solar Max, you can expect the potential for disruption, as well as the potential for harmless light shows like the one some folks will see Tuesday night. Keep watch on these sites for all the sights:
- NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory website
- Video of the Aug. 1 eruption from SpaceWeather.com
- Video and stills of the flare-up from the Center for Astrophysics
- More pictures of the sun from SpaceWeather Flash
- Views from space on Twitpic, courtesy of Astro_Wheels
I provide a short snippet of commentary on the eruption in this msnbc.com video. Join the Cosmic Log corps by signing up as my Facebook friend or hooking up on Twitter. And if you really want to be friendly, ask me about "The Case for Pluto."
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I am surprised and shocked that none of the cable news or regular news channels are carrying this story. Yet we are still bombarded with Lindsey Lohand being let out of jail after 13 days. This nation and its news media have lost their essential level of logic.
Why should people believe "Scientists", you guys can't even agree on something on a little ol' newsvine, much less really important stuff. And you all ridicule Religions?
where does it say anywhere that the people posting on here are all scientists?
Pirate C - I didn't say everybody on these vines was a Scientist. Not everybody is a Religious person either, but the Religious people AND the Scientists that ARE posting can't seem to agree on anything at all. You have your Muslims, Christians, Hindu's and then you have your Global Warming and your Anti-Global Warming and your MANmade and NOT MANmade Global Warming Scientists and THEN your Sun causes Global Warming and Sun DOESN't cause Global Warming, why believe ANY of them? Everybody thinks they're the MOST correct. Enjoy the ride on this planet, when it's our time to go nobody can stop it, ask the dinosaurs. Oh! yeah, you can't, they're extinct.
Thats a pretty true statement, What is sad though is Humanity could stop what happened to the dinosaurs (if it was a rock in space that ended them) but our species would be so wrapped up in the cost of it, or wait till the last minute that it would be too late to do anything.
The human race is reactionary, we are not proactive (common sense would dictate that we get off our duffs and get some plan together to deal with a big rock from space)
Anyhow, If I were to die I would rather it be by a meteor that was traveling thru space for eons at least that way my death would be cool; not that anyone would care but I would be, Yeah it took a big rock from space that was around before the earth was formed to take me out..
Pirate C - Yeah, I'd like to go that way too. Peace.
God is the one who is in charge of the weather. What ever he gives us we have take it, and he knows what he is doing. GOD never, ever give any problems to His creation. He is a good GOD and merciful.!!!
NYC.
The Bible is full of, and I quote, GOD's "wrath". would that qualify as a "problem" He gave to his creation (even if man incurred that wrath)?
The Torah, and the Koran also have these kinds of events.
I wonder what the ancient Egyptians had to say about Ra, their sun god. Most sun cults recognize the effects of the sun can cause problems.
effects of the sun can't cause problems? you mean even when it goes to red giant and we all fry in 8 minutes?
Veteran see my commetn #30 as it didnt post to the right thread
I had no idea that you could predict a solar storm this far ahead of time. This story was posted 19 hrs ago, and its not predicted to impact the earth for another 12 hrs or so. Is this sort of time lapse typical (E.g. during the solar storm that knocked out power to quebec)? Or do we have less warning for a stronger storm?
A Veteran I hate to break it to you but when the Sun goes Red Giant we will all be dead a long while before it consumes the earth.
The situation you are describing that we will fry in 8 minutes would be if the Sun goes supernova, but our Sun lacks the mass needed to do so. Instead when it exausts the fuel it will grow bigger which will take millions of years to happen so the climate change and the effect of this on the Earths life will be a gradual die off. It will not happen in 8 minutes.
Pirate C - Okay, Got IT. Thank You for the information. And I think the sun will blow on it's schedule not ours.
Veteran, in all honesty (not that I would be alive 4-5 billion years from now) I would love to bite the big one thru a super nova, if I were to die and there was no way to avoid it (and it was the Suns time to explode), getting obliterated by a supernova or even sucked into a black hole would be way cool.
I know that might be kind of morbid, but if one could choose how to die(and the event aka supernova/blackhole; were going to happen regardless) those would be uber cool ways to go out.
Might get our chance with that Black Hole thing with that accellerator/collider in Europe getting ready to go at 100% some skeptics say it may create a Black Hole that will swallow us in about 12 seconds. But, then, some skeptics said when they detonated the first atomic bomb the earth's entire atmosphere was going to ignite too. So much for skeptics, you have a good afternoon and maybe we'll talk again in the next life.
True that, people do have a habit of being scared of the unknown.
I for one am not concerned as it would be impossible for a black hole that is created in the Hydron collider to swallow the earth. Any black hole created in the collider doesnt have the mass needed to swallow anything, it will evaporate before it an have any effect on anything.
Here is the reason why, a black hole in space is a sun say 100 times the mass of our sun that is collapsed to a point say the size of Manhattan.
all that mass compressed to such a small point has enormouse gravity, Now take two atoms of Gold (I think that is what they are using), those two atoms of gold are accelerated at near the speed of light or at 99.9% the speed of light, when they collide they could create a micro black hole.
But these are just two atoms of gold, how can two atoms of gold swallow the earth? Let alone a person, or 4 molecules of air?
It is impossible, the mass is just not there. This is what I dont understand on why people are freaking out about possible black holes swallowing the earth. It is a impossibility based on physics. Its all about mass.
Besides there are collisions with cosmic rays, matter and atoms that hit the earths atmosphere and it happens everyday over a billion times at the same speeds as the hadron collider and no black holes have been created.
The only thing I would ever be concerned about is when we start to try to make anti-matter, now that is something to be terrified about.
Pirate C - That was VERY informative. Thank You for the expert explanation, must be pretty accurate too, nobody has come back to blast you. See you again.
I believe that is a Hydrogen Alpha shot; not a shot in the X-ray region.
Like measuring the length of time a campfire will burn by it's component fuel (the logs) we have conservatively estimated the length of time the Sun will continue burning. Currently it's almost arrived at the midpoint of it's lifespan (of 10 billion years). we have approximately 5 billion years left. Ours is a main sequence star (for those of you who don't love this stuff), which means the core is fusing hydrogen and the star has established hydrostatic equilibrium. stars 1/2 the size of the Sun up to 6 times the size (in terms of mass) of our Sun can become a red giant. I won't go into electron degeneracy pressure (since I don't understand it fully yet), and i also have a lot to learn about the difference between RGB (red giant branch) stars and AGB (asymptotic giant branch) stars.
as a hypothetical, it'd be interesting to see all the reactions a helium burst would create in the solar system, if it happened today.
Wow! Mob - VERY Impressive, I gotta take a little time and look this stuff up. Will get back with you in a couple of days.
Somewhere in the process of discovering more about our planet & the universe, the entire human race has stopped to talk about the weather.
how would the 2 million people in Pakistan or the millions else where on the planet that are effected by the monsoon rains this year & every year, feel that so many intelligent people are arguing over the average temperature of our planet?.
What is the average temperature of our Earth? I done a search of that question & the average temperature of our earth is apparently between "13 and 14.6 degrees". How can you average out a complex set of variables & end up with another set of variables that need to be averaged out?
'Then argue over a 1 degree predicted temperature rise. This is not science at all. This is a game of Averages, statistics covered in political muck backed by profiteers & the village idiot.
And to those people who constantly put down Amateur Scientists by rubbishing their hard-work as being unqualified, You lot better get a damn grip on reality, One example of the success of the "Amateur Scientists" and all the different groups they form out of all kinds disciplines and interest is all this computer technology that we all enjoy today.
Here's a good question! I'd like to see who can answer it.
What is the yearly global average difference in temperature between the yearly global average temperature of earths atmosphere and the yearly global average of the earths surface?.
Ps I'm still looking forward to this storm if it ever happens but I'm starting to think that it's been over sensationalized!
Sun is going to become a Red Giant at the peak of the next Solar Max.
There is a person that is known as Astralwalker and he has presented extreme data about the Sun and 2012 Event. He is saying that Galactic Core of Milky Way exploded 26000 years ago and now there is powerful wave of energy spreading all along the galactic plane. Its gravity pulse will hit the Sun on 23 Dec 2012 causing dramatic changes in the dynamic of our Sun which result will be a start of a slow few months expansion of the outer layer of the Sun. Red Giant phase according to him will last until 28 March 2013 when outer layer will be released into space. He is saying one Sun will die and another White Dwarf type of star will be born. Exactly what ancient Mayas and other ancient cultures were counting and what their calendars are all about.
Anyway a worth to read.
http://www.truth4thai.org/globalhealingmeditation/id17.html
http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=11864&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=cf030bccf9e88e6f468670f3aceec4f1
or just Google Astralwalker 2012
Scott
I can't wait for December 22nd 2012 or whatever next day following the end of the world. What a lot of nonsense all of this. I'm gonna buy a big bottle of champagne and celebrate while the pitiful, gullible morons wonder why they are still alive. As for you, Scott, if you really believe that crap, you're already brain dead.
What he is saing has logic and he is well respected in elite cirlces in NASA and ESA. I wonder why all elite of PhD people pay attention to what he is saying and you still do not get it.
http://projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8441&page=118
I hope you will reconsider your views, there is whole underground world system build, space crafts build taht have to ready till the midle of 2012, and of course they simple can not pronance this to the public to avoid panic and troubles on a global scale.
I'm PhD also, so you can not get PhD with brain dead Michael. Astral Walker is right. We checked.
Hope you will understand this in the right way and before rocks start to fall on our heads. If I were you I would start preparing myself and my family.
If not, enjoy your champagne...something that you will never get the chance to do it...Cheers
Yeah, you can not get PhD with brain dead Michael. Praise Xenu.