Sun Shoots Monster Flare at Earth!

HeXp£Øi±

Well-Known Member
The sun on Tuesday unleashed what appears to be the third most powerful flare in recorded history, a storm of charged particles that could hit Earth midday Wednesday with more effect than any since 1989, when power was knocked out to an entire Canadian province.
Depending on the storm’s magnetic orientation, it could set off a dramatic display of colorful northern lights well into midlatitudes of the United States and Europe.

Meanwhile, satellite operators and power grid managers are preparing to endure a potentially damaging event. And astronauts aboard the international space station have taken cover from heavier radiation sent out by the flare. They are not expected to be in any serious danger.

Kicked up at 6 a.m. ET Tuesday, the major solar eruption comes on the heels of four other flares late last week and over the weekend. All were considered fairly severe, but the latest eruption makes the others seem like solar sneezes.

Tuesday’s eruption is classified as an X18, where X denotes a major flare and larger numbers are stronger. That compares to two flare-ups over the weekend that were rated less than X2

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http://www.msnbc.com/news/984388.asp?0cv=CB10&cp1=1
 

unclehobart

New Member
Taint no way to dig a hole deep enough to avoid it if it does. I wonder if Walgreens carries 1,000,000,000,000 SPF sunblock.
 

PT

Off 'Motherfuckin' Topic Elite
I wonder if we'll even get to see it coming or if it will just be over before we know it
 

unclehobart

New Member
If it blows, it should be an event at near the speed of light. No warning at all.

But... thats not how stellar masses go ka-boom. Theres a rigid method to the madness that is equally unpleasant and takes quite a long time.

This at best could be considered mild heartburn.
 

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
Well...it's not coming at us at the speed of light. It's not light at all per se...just a big-ol magnetic wave with some radiation kicked in to just say "Hi!" . It'll stir up the dust in our atmosphere (auroroa borealis), and maybe give you an extra day's worth of tanning, but that's about it for us.

Machines, on the other hand, don't much like magnetic waves. Fucks up their computer chips, erases magnetic drives/disks etc... this is going to play havok on satelites, power grids and cel phones.
 

chcr

Too cute for words
1. The sun can't go supernova, not enough mass.
2. If anything catastrophic happened to the sun, we wouldn't know till eight minutes later (wouldn't get a warning though).
3. The sun will, however, become a red giant in around five billion years.
 

tonksy

New Member
Professur said:
All of them, in under 8 mins total. :sob: That's so incredibly sad.
giving credit where credit is due...i guess....i meant 8 minutes each time. i apologize for any confusion...
 
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