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Posts Tagged ‘sun’

Sun Delivered Curveball Of Powerful Radiation At Earth Say UNH Scientists

February 2, 2012 Comments off
nanopatentsandinnovations
A potent follow-up solar flare, which occurred Friday (Jan. 17, 2012), just days after the Sun launched the biggest coronal mass ejection (CME) seen in nearly a decade, delivered a powerful radiation punch to Earth’s magnetic field despite the fact that it was aimed away from our planet.According to University of New Hampshire scientists currently studying and modeling various aspects of solar radiation, this was due to both the existing population of energetic particles launched by the first CME and a powerful magnetic connection that reeled particles in towards Earth from the Sun’s blast region, which had spun to an oblique angle.”Energetic particles can sneak around the ‘corner,’ as was the case in Friday’s event when it was launched at the Sun’s limb, or edge,” says astrophysicist Harlan Spence, director of the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) and principal investigator for the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. CRaTER is designed to measure and characterize aspects of the deep space radiation environment.

Caption: Particle radiation from the Jan. 23, 2012 solar flare speeds away from the Sun along curved magnetic field lines (blue lines) and arrives before the coronal mass ejection (orange mass from the Sun) and its driven shock.

Image courtesy of Nathan Schwadron, UNH-EOS.
Space weather events can disrupt Earth-based power grids, satellites that Read more…

Fiercest Solar Flare of 2012 Yet: X Class – January 28/29

January 30, 2012 1 comment

onlykent.com

In the last week or so we’ve been reporting on solar flares that have been released and solar storms impacting earth, with more intense northern lights displays and concerns that radio communications and satellites could be disrupted. We can now tell you that yesterday the largest solar flare yet of 2012 occurred, this time an Read more…

Huge Solar Eruption Sparks Strongest Radiation Storm in 7 Years

January 23, 2012 2 comments

livescience.com

solar flare, aurora solar storm
This SDO image shows an M9-class solar flare erupting on the Sun’s northeastern hemisphere on Jan. 23, 2012, just 4 days after a previous strong CME that sparked aurora around the world on the 22nd.
CREDIT: NASA/SDO and the AIA consortium. Edited by J. Major

A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles toward Earth tomorrow (Jan. 24), as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun.

Early this morning (0359 GMT Jan. 23, which corresponds to late Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10:59 p.m. EST), NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun , according to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com.

The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become increasingly active lately. Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the Stereo spacecraft observed the massive sun storm.

A barrage of charged particles triggered by this morning’s solar flare is expected to hit Earth tomorrow at around Read more…

Categories: Sun Tags: ,

Long duration M-Class Solar Flare may be Earth directed

January 19, 2012 Comments off

(TheWeatherSpace.com) – Within the last 24 hours a long duration M-Class solar flare erupted from the Sun. This may be earth directed, according to preliminary observations.

The region, AR1401, has a beta-gamma magnetic field and it has the energy for these strong solar flares. It has erupted one every day so far, one of them nearly earth directed.

Categories: Sun Tags: ,

Unexplained Object Near Sun Appears To Be Heading Towards Earth

January 9, 2012 2 comments

beforeitsnews.com

Please view this video full screen so that you can see what I am pointing out. Here is visual proof that there is something in front of our sun between us and it. Everyday it is getting closer and now you can actually see there is seven or more objects orbiting the larger dwarf star.

Read more…

How the Spike in Solar Flares May Affect Earth in 2012

January 5, 2012 1 comment

topsecretwriters.com

According to NASA, A solar flare is defined as a “sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness”, which occurs when “magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released.”

For centuries, solar flares have caused various calamities on Earth, such as disrupted communications, blackouts and unusual lights appearing in the sky.

In 1859, the most powerful solar flare in recorded history hit Earth and was observed by the English amateur astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington. It became known as the “Carrington Event”, or as the “Carrington Super Flare”.

The event occurred during solar cycle 10, the tenth solar cycle since 1755.

The powerful solar storm not only created auroras across the world, but also interrupted telegraphs for weeks. That was back in the mid-nineteenth century.

Can you imagine, with the modern reliance on satellites, how devastating such a Read more…

Wow! Skywatcher Photographs Huge Solar Flare from Giant Sunspot

October 3, 2011 Comments off

space.com

French skywatcher Jean-Pierre Brahic took this photo of the violent solar flare from the sunspot 1302 on the sun's surface on Sept. 22, 2011. Earth is superimposed for scale.
French skywatcher Jean-Pierre Brahic took this photo of the violent solar flare from the sunspot 1302 on the sun’s surface on Sept. 22, 2011. Earth is superimposed for scale.
CREDIT: Jean-Pierre Brahic

An intrepid skywatcher has snapped an amazing photograph of a massive solar flare erupting from Sunspot 1302 is one of the most active sunspot groups in years.

A sunspot is a blemish on the sun caused by intense magnetic activity. The new photo, captured on Sept. 22 by skywatcher Jean-Pierre Brahic, shows solar plasma magnetically hanging above the sun’s surface after the Sunspot 1302 unleashed an X-class solar flare. The image includes an inset of Earth for a size comparison.

Solar flares are powerful storms on the sun that occur when energy stored in twisted magnetic Read more…

Scientists Discover 1 Planet Orbiting 2 Stars

September 16, 2011 Comments off

voanews

Photo: NASA
Artist’s conception of planet (dark circle) orbiting two suns

Astronomers say they have discovered a planet that orbits around a pair of stars.  It is the first time a so-called circumbinary system has been detected.

Movie fans might be familiar with the score of “Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope,” the blockbuster movie from 1977.  Luke Skywalker stands on his stark home planet Tatooine.  As he gazes pensively into the distance toward a pinkish sky, an orange sun descends toward the horizon, with a smaller white sun following close behind.

Well, move over, Tatooine, says John Knoll of Industrial Light and Magic, which Read more…

Could The Sun Set Off The Next Big Natural Disaster?

September 15, 2011 Comments off

smithsonianmag

A medium-size solar flare with a coronal mass ejection, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 7, 2011. (credit: NASA/SDO)

It can take a long time to clean up from natural disasters. New Orleans still had remnants of Katrina damage years after the storm barreled through. Hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless in Haiti, more than a year and a half after its earthquake. Areas of Japan may be off limits for years due to the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

But as bad as these events might be, they are at least limited geographically. But that probably won’t be true when it comes to a severe solar storm, say scientists in a new study in Space Weather. Before I go into that, though, let’s first review what I mean by Read more…

Solar flare could unleash nuclear holocaust across planet Earth, forcing hundreds of nuclear power plants into total meltdowns

September 13, 2011 Comments off

naturalnews

power (NaturalNews) Forget about the 2012 Mayan calendar, comet Elenin or the Rapture. The real threat to human civilization is far more mundane, and it’s right in front of our noses. If Fukushima has taught us anything, it’s that just one runaway meltdown of fissionable nuclear material can have wide-ranging and potentially devastating consequences for life on Earth. To date, Fukushima has already released 168 times the total radiation released from the Hiroshima nuclear bomb detonated in 1945, and the Fukushima catastrophe is now undeniably the worst Read more…