Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The Mega-Flare

D

Durandal7

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 24, 2001
3,153
0
MEGA-FLARE: Giant sunspot 486 unleashed yet another powerful solar flare today (Nov. 4th, 1950 UT), and this one could be historic. The blast saturated X-ray detectors onboard GOES satellites at X17.4 for 11 minutes. The last time such a thing happened in 2001 the flare was classified as an X20--the biggest ever. This one might be even bigger; stay tuned for updates.

Ionizing radiation from the flare hit Earth's atmosphere soon after the explosion and caused a severe radio blackout, which radio listeners noticed across North America. The explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. Although the CME is not heading directly toward Earth, it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on Nov. 5th.
http://spaceweather.com/


Truly bizarre, especially considering that we are at solar minimum.
 
G4scott

G4scott

macrumors 68020
Jan 9, 2002
2,225
5
USA_WA
I heard there were 3 major flares this Monday morning. That makes at least 6 flares within 2 weeks, which is an unusually extraordinary high amount of activity.

Weird, huh?
 
mactastic

mactastic

macrumors 68040
Apr 24, 2003
3,681
665
Colly-fornia
The end is near....:D

Yeah that seems like a high level of activity. Unfortunately we have so little data to compare it with. The "largest flare ever" only means the last 30 years or so right?
 
Mr. Anderson

Mr. Anderson

Moderator emeritus
Nov 1, 2001
22,568
6
VA
When these sun spots rotate around the sun and point back at us, it will be interesting to see how they've changed. They should be smaller, but is something big is happening on the sun, then they might still be huge.

I hope not - the idea that the sun is going nova or just starts dumping a ton of radiation into space (more than normal, I should say) won't be a good thing.

D
 
Stelliform

Stelliform

macrumors 68000
Oct 21, 2002
1,721
0
Originally posted by Mr. Anderson


I hope not - the idea that the sun is going nova or just starts dumping a ton of radiation into space (more than normal, I should say) won't be a good thing.

D
Click to expand...

Even if it was going Nova this would just be the start. I imagine it would take hundreds to thousands of years to render the earth uninhabitable. Plenty of time for the evacuation.... I hope. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom