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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Strongest solar storm since 2005 hitting Earth This colorized NASA image, taken Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, … This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sunday night, Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere. Space weather officials say the strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST. Physicist Doug Biesecker said the biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later. It will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. (AP Photo/NASA) WASHINGTON (AP) — The sun is bombarding Earth with radiation from the biggest solar storm in more than six years with more to come from the fast-moving eruption. The solar flare occurred at about 11 p.m. EST Sunday and will hit Earth with three different effects at three different times. The biggest issue is radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado. The radiation is mostly a concern for satellite disruptions and astronauts in space. It can cause communication problems for polar-traveling airplanes, said space weather center physicist Doug Biesecker. Radiation from Sunday's flare arrived at Earth an hour later and will likely continue through Wednesday. Levels are considered strong but other storms have been more severe. There are two higher levels of radiation on NOAA's storm scale — severe and extreme — Biesecker said. Still, this storm is the strongest for radiation since May 2005. The radiation — in the form of protons — came flying out of the sun at 93 million miles per hour. "The whole volume of space between here and Jupiter is just filled with protons and you just don't get rid of them like that," Biesecker said. That's why the effects will stick around for a couple days. NASA's flight surgeons and solar experts examined the solar flare's expected effects and decided that the six astronauts on the International Space Station do not have to do anything to protect themselves from the radiation, spokesman Rob Navias said. A solar eruption is followed by a one-two-three punch, said Antti Pulkkinen, a physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Catholic University. First comes electromagnetic radiation, followed by radiation in the form of protons. Then, finally the coronal mass ejection — that's the plasma from the sun itself — hits. Usually that travels at about 1 or 2 million miles per hour, but this storm is particularly speedy and is shooting out at 4 million miles per hour, Biesecker said. It's the plasma that causes much of the noticeable problems on Earth, such as electrical grid outages. In 1989, a solar storm caused a massive blackout in Quebec. It can also pull the northern lights further south. But this coronal mass ejection seems likely to be only moderate, with a chance for becoming strong, Biesecker said. The worst of the storm is likely to go north of Earth. And unlike last October, when a freak solar storm caused auroras to be seen as far south as Alabama, the northern lights aren't likely to dip too far south this time, Biesecker said. Parts of New England, upstate New York, northern Michigan, Montana and the Pacific Northwest could see an aurora but not until Tuesday evening, he said. For the past several years the sun had been quiet, almost too quiet. Part of that was the normal calm part of the sun's 11-year cycle of activity. Last year, scientists started to speculate that the sun was going into an unusually quiet cycle that seems to happen maybe once a century or so. Now that super-quiet cycle doesn't seem as likely, Biesecker said. Scientists watching the sun with a new NASA satellite launched in 2010 — during the sun's quiet period — are excited. "We haven't had anything like this for a number of years," Pulkkinen said. "It's kind of special." ___ NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center: www.swpc.noaa.gov/ NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Comments: Donna, Pekin, Ill Energy does equal mass times the speed of light squared. Much of the energy passes right through the Earth as if it were not there, however the rest is moderated by the mass of the Earth. Some of it is converted into heat, while some is moderated down from the speed of light squared and becomes mass, ever so slowly increasing the Earths mass. This builds up pressure under the mantle, leading to volcanic eruptions burying the past in dust, and pushing the contenants further apart over the eons. The Moon with less mass, and much less active(nile) core, captures very little of the passing energy, thereby having a much lower growth rate. As mass attracts mass this causes the distance from the Earth to the Moon to slowly deminish. I must add that this progression is an acceleration with the final result being the collision of the two bodies with a coresponding increase in the rotation rate of the two bodies as a system. This would involve changes in tidal amplitudes and times. Alicia, Indianapolis The Moon has been drifting AWAY from us since it formed. During the Triassic period it appeared 4 times larger in the night sky than it is today. Google it. Brian, Columbus, Georgia The tidal bulges produced on Earth by the Moon are not centered at the point on Earth's surface directly below the Moon, but are shifted ahead of the Moon because of Earth's faster spin rate. The gravitational force of the excess mass in this displaced bulge pulls on the Moon, slightly increasing its orbital velocity. In the 1600s, Johannes Kepler showed that when an object's orbital velocity increases, its orbital radius will expand; thus, the Moon slowly recedes from Earth. . Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
Something else we can blame on Obama.
Perhaps I am getting forgetful but I don't remember much happening after the 2005 blast.
That fucker.
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