[_ Old Earth _] Our Crazy Sun!

[Pizzaguy]

On Valentine's Day (ET) the Sun unleased one of its most powerful explosions, an X-class flare. The blast was the largest so far in the new solar cycle. Erupting from active region AR1158 in the Sun's southern hemisphere, the flare is captured here in this extreme ultraviolet image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The intense burst of electromagnetic radiation momentarily overwhelmed pixels in SDO's detectors causing the bright vertical blemish. This X-class flare was also accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive cloud of charged particles traveling outward at nearly 900 kilometers per second. Skywatchers at high latitudes should be alert for aurorae tonight.

ht tp://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110217.html

(Take the space out between the two t's at the beginning)

 

[Pizzaguy]

What I think is REALLY cool is this, posted in response to the above at thespaceport:

The "Carrington Event" of 1859 produced aurorae visible in the Caribbean. It has been said that such violent storms occur only every 500 years or so, but no one can be certain...

ht tp://science.nasa.gov/science-news/scien...arringtonflare/

"May 6, 2008: At 11:18 AM on the cloudless morning of Thursday, September 1, 1859, 33-year-old Richard Carrington—widely acknowledged to be one of England's foremost solar astronomers—was in his well-appointed private observatory. Just as usual on every sunny day, his telescope was projecting an 11-inch-wide image of the sun on a screen, and Carrington skillfully drew the sunspots he saw.


On that morning, he was capturing the likeness of an enormous group of sunspots. Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of blinding white light appeared over the sunspots, intensified rapidly, and became kidney-shaped. Realizing that he was witnessing something unprecedented and "being somewhat flurried by the surprise," Carrington later wrote, "I hastily ran to call someone to witness the exhibition with me. On returning within 60 seconds, I was mortified to find that it was already much changed and enfeebled." He and his witness watched the white spots contract to mere pinpoints and disappear.

It was 11:23 AM. Only five minutes had passed.

Just before dawn the next day, skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii.



Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted.
"What Carrington saw was a white-light solar flare—a magnetic explosion on the sun," explains David Hathaway, solar physics team lead at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Now we know that solar flares happen frequently, especially during solar sunspot maximum. Most betray their existence by releasing X-rays (recorded by X-ray telescopes in space) and radio noise (recorded by radio telescopes in space and on Earth). In Carrington's day, however, there were no X-ray satellites or radio telescopes. No one knew flares existed until that September morning when one super-flare produced enough light to rival the brightness of the sun itself."

That was a somewhat rare event - and I found it really interesting that it had such an effect on the telegraph lines, which had been erected only recently!

 

[Deavonreye]

If a similar event happens in our modern world, it wouldn't be the beginnings of good times. Let's just hope that, as the sun gets into this active phase, it won't do any damage that could disrupt life [or our way of life].

 

[Pizzaguy]

The event of the second post does concern me. I know that those who put comm sats in orbit are not dummies, but I wonder how "hardened" they are.

I believe our electric grid is well enough designed and protected but I sure can't say for sure.

 

[Deavonreye]

I really do hope that it is. It would be "the dark ages", . . . literally overnight.