Somethin's Up with ole Mr. Sun
To put it simply our sun has been acting strange recently ejecting massive amounts of magnetically charged plasma into space. Normally the sun goes through an 11 year cycle of sunspot activity, at the peak these ejections are kind of normal, and usually happen without much notice, however the Sun is currently not at a peak in the cycle. A few days ago we got hit with a rather strong ejection, and today apparently another even larger one happened:
Sun erupts in biggest storm in years
Earth in path of solar-ejected cloud
By Kate Tobin
CNN
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 5:34 PM EST (2234 GMT)
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite spies the third most powerful solar flare on record, the bright blip near the sun's middle, on October 28.
CNN) -- One of the largest known solar flares erupted from the sun on Tuesday, heralding a storm of superheated gas that could hit Earth within a day.
The outburst was classified an X17.2 flare, the third largest on record, according to Paal Brekke, a project scientist with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a sun-watching satellite mission jointly run by NASA and the European Space Agency.
In comparison, two solar storms observed last week were between X1 and X5, Brekke said.
Solar flares are associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, eruptions from the sun that, if headed our way, can disrupt communications satellites and power grids.
As this particularly fast-moving CME is aimed directly toward Earth, it is possible that when it arrives midday Wednesday, the geomagnetic activity will be strong enough to stir up electrical trouble.
"The eruption was positioned perfectly. It's headed straight for us like a freight train," said John Kohl, a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist, in a statement. "A major geomagnetic storm is bound to happen."
Brekke is not so sure and awaits more data from SOHO and another deep space solar-watching satellite positioned between the sun and Earth.
"Until we know the orientation of the magnetic field in this cloud, we will know who how severe the geomagnetic storm will be."
Interacting with Earth's magnetic field, the high-energy solar winds produced by a CME often increase night displays of the northern and southern lights.
"Not all CMEs trigger auroras. Several, for instance, have swept past Earth in recent days without causing widespread displays," said Tony Phillips of Spaceweather.com, which monitors cosmic conditions related to the sun and Earth.
"It all depends on the orientation of tangled magnetic fields within the electrified cloud of gas. This CME is no exception. It might cause auroras, or it might not. We will find out when it arrives."
It's headed straight for us like a freight train.
-- Astrophysicist John Kohl
Researchers classify solar flares using three categories: C for weak, M for Moderate and X for strong. The largest flare on record, one of two known X20s, occurred on April 2, 2001, but was not directed at Earth.
In March 1989, an X15 burst knocked out power for millions of people in Canada. In recent years, however, satellite and utility operators have devised safeguards that usually minimize damage from solar storms.
Space weather forecasters say this spate of strong solar flares unusual because it is not following normal patterns of solar behavior. The sun follows an 11-year cycle of activity and the last peak took place in 2000.
-- CNN.com's Richard Stenger contributed to this report.
It could screw with satellites and maybe electricty, but that's about it.
Now if the sun does something weird and get hotter or brighter then stuff could get pretty nasty here on Earth.
This would essentially accellarate global warming and melt the ice caps, thus flooding all the coastal cities.
Cause more weather catastrophies, from droughts and fires, to hurricanes and floods.
If there is a black hole approaching our solar system and the oddities of the sun's magnetic field are caused by gravitational effects of the currently distant black hole, then we're fu<ked sooner or later. If scientists somehow discover the black hole near our solar system humans might as well cash in our chips and wait for eventual extinction unless we build a planet sized space ship that could hold 8 billion people, and leave our solar system for good cause once the black hole gets close enough, everything is finished.
The good news is, that will probably NEVER HAPPEN! There are what is believed several hundred thousand to millions of theorized black holes in our galaxy however the distances are so vast between things in the galaxy that our solar system's chances of encountering one are very very remote. But it's kind of a fun avenue of thought to wonder what would people do if they found out the entire planet would be uninhabitable in X amount of years. Would we all put down our guns and stop shooting each other in favor of building a "supership?" or just resign and give up to be winked out of galaxy for good? It's just food for thought.
Re: Somethin's Up with ole Mr. Sun
I have wondered about the apocalyptic chalamity that befell some unaware species that happened to be unlucky enough to have a black hole get close enough to their solar system and homeworld. I imagine this would gradually get worse for the poor bastards living on their planet until things were unlivable when their planet was absorbed by the black hole's event horizon or ejected entirely from the star system from the gravitational distortion caused by the black hole. If these alien whatevers weren't intelligent enought to escape their planet before it was destroyed or unlivable what an aweful genocide that would be.
Here's a fun fact, a black hole with an event horizon the size of Earth's moon could swallow our entire solar system including the sun over X Million of years and when all that matter was absorbed the black hole would still hang around like nothing happened at all to feed off of something else in the future. It amazes me that things this incredibly powerful and destructive exist out there.
irony
Now that would be funny. After all this hand wringing about global warming and the ozone layer and deforestation of rain forests, the friggin' sun goes on the blink and fries us all due to some thermonuclear fusion transient that had nothing to do with hairspray.
Re: VGX
Who says the Sun HAS to follow the normal 11-year cycle? Yes, the peak was in 2000-2001. However, that cycle is probabilistic at best, and it only states that such events MOST OFTEN occur during the solar max. In fact, during the two-year peak, there was one X20 event, which was larger than the latest ones.
In other words, it may not be completely ordinary, but it's normal for a star. The Sun has been doing this for over four billion years, and it hasn't yet exploded. Relax.
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"Certainly. Any other pearls of wisdom?"- Joanna Dark, Perfect Dark "The name's Bond. James Bond."- James Bond "The gate to tomorrow is not the light of heaven, but the darkness of the depths of the Earth."- Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII "The future depends upon thee, Link. Thou art courageous..."- The Great Deku Tree, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "Let me fight you to Hell."-Terry, Shenmue "Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."-Indiana Jones "Say Terrance, what did the Spanish priest say to the Uranian gynecologist?"If Satan is the Prince of Darkness, who's the King?
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"Certainly. Any other pearls of wisdom?"- Joanna Dark, Perfect Dark "The name's Bond. James Bond."- James Bond "The gate to tomorrow is not the light of heaven, but the darkness of the depths of the Earth."- Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII "The future depends upon thee, Link. Thou art courageous..."- The Great Deku Tree, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "Let me fight you to Hell."-Terry, Shenmue "Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."-Indiana Jones "Say Terrance, what did the Spanish priest say to the Uranian gynecologist?"If Satan is the Prince of Darkness, who's the King?
Re: VGX
I used a filter to look at the two brand-spanking-new sunspots today. It was pretty nifty.
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With Bow let us win Kine, with Bow in battle, with
Bow be victory in our hot encounters,
The Bow brings grief and sorrow to the foeman; armed
With Bow may we subdue all regions.
Close to his ear, as fain to speak, she presses, holding
Her well-loved friend in her embraces;
Strained on the bow, she whispers like a woman -- this
Bow-string that preserves us in the Combat.
Abuelo RPG Pain in the ass forget it
(10/28/03 10:13 pm) Reply
Re: VGX
errr.... are we going to die or not?
--------------------- Sorry if i wrote something incorrectly, remember that i´m Venezuelan and my first languaje is the spanish...
Re: VGX
Just as well, I'm going to stay inside tomorrow, in lieu of being bombarded by high energy protons, (can't imagine that's too healthy for my DNA proteins) not that I don't trust Earth's magnetic field and all, but better safe than sorry.
Re: VGX
Found this link while looking at dead GameFAQs boards, stumbling on people's secret "Look at me and my awesome collection of crap!" threads; I think VGX would like it. Exit Mundi: all the cool ways our world and/or universe could come to a wild and unpleasant end!
Re: VGX
VG: You know DNA isn't a protein, right? At least, I don't think it is.
Abluelo: secure.fragism.com/store/...rrer=ngemu
Yeah, yeah, you're no Nintendo fan, whatever. Look around the other products. You'll find stuff to back up your memory cards on your PC with. Sure, your PC is susceptible to solar crap too, but if you make enough copies, I am sure you'll be alright. Actually, I think there's an official thing for PSX for backing up files, but whatever.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
With Bow let us win Kine, with Bow in battle, with
Bow be victory in our hot encounters,
The Bow brings grief and sorrow to the foeman; armed
With Bow may we subdue all regions.
Close to his ear, as fain to speak, she presses, holding
Her well-loved friend in her embraces;
Strained on the bow, she whispers like a woman -- this
Bow-string that preserves us in the Combat.
Re: VGX
Yes, that's right. DNA makes mRNA, which goes to the Rhibosomes, where the tRNA brings codons to match with the mRNA, which creates proteins.
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With Bow let us win Kine, with Bow in battle, with
Bow be victory in our hot encounters,
The Bow brings grief and sorrow to the foeman; armed
With Bow may we subdue all regions.
Close to his ear, as fain to speak, she presses, holding
Her well-loved friend in her embraces;
Strained on the bow, she whispers like a woman -- this
Bow-string that preserves us in the Combat.
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