A half a million miles long ‘solar whip’ is on the surface of the sun. The radiation from the eruption will create a geomagnetic storm. It will hit earth today. We are the audience. We watch big games. No, we do not play with fire.
Sep 05 2012
Scary, but not really scary!
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tony goddard
September 5, 2012 at 7:24 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Scientists have long predicted that a single solar storm could wipe out our communications infrastructure in a few hours but the probability is extremely low. Think of the surface area of a sphere of 93 million miles and the diameter of the earth of 4000 miles. It does not matter whether the distances are measured in kilometers or miles, since we are only interested in the ratio. There is a very low chance of actually getting hit by a great lance of magnetic plasma.
R = distance to sun 93000000
r = radius of earth 4000
(PI*r*r) % 4 * PI * R * R
= r*r % 4 * R * R = (r%2*R)^2
= (2000 % 93000000)^2 say.
$ X<- 2000.0%93000000
$ X*X
4.62e-10
Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl
September 5, 2012 at 5:51 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Very nice images. I do not understand why they are tagged under atheism though.
StevoR
September 5, 2012 at 9:55 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Not fire but hotter still
This plasma of the Sun
Entwined it curls
Springs magnetic lines
It leaps and dances on.
Against the void
Our daytime star
Is haloed by such stuff
Corona fiery an AU off
Glory in each one.
How many flares and spots and blasts
From aeons since its birth
Our local star that shines so far
Long may its beauty last
(But please no major solar storm that takes out satellites, power grids and worse!)
Cheers Taslima, great clip.
StevoR
September 5, 2012 at 9:59 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
PS. One of the best books I’ve read this year is this one :
http://www.stuartclark.com/publications/2-publications/4-the-sun-kings
on the how we’ve learnt about the Sun and solar flares and storms and their associated earthly effects over time especially focusing on Richard Carrington who witnessed what is still the hugest solar flare ever known back in 1859 but including a lot more too from William Herschel’s belief in our Sun as inhabited and earth-like (Really!) to SOHO’s recent space based studies. I’d highly recommend it, great read.
Hope its okay to link to that book here – apologies and please let me know if not.
Taslima Nasreen
September 5, 2012 at 10:39 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
You are awesome.
StevoR
September 6, 2012 at 10:37 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Aww.. Thanks Taslima. (Can feel my head swelling already.)