The latest wave of solar eruptions has some scientists worried that this may initiate a geomagnetic storm on Earth. But so far, the Earth is safe as the flareup turned out to be minor. If a geomagnetic storm were to occur today, it would likely destroy our navigation systems and underwater internet cables.
As scientists try to figure out what kind of solar storm the latest shockwave initiated, Inverse breaks down how the Sun works, why it sends hot plasma in our direction, and the effects of space weather on Earth.
The Sun is an active star. Every now and then, a solar flare will erupt from the Sun and send a small ripple toward Earth's magnetic field. What's a solar flare? And how can a geomagnetic storm make auroras visible in the US?
Asha C. Show Caption. Hide Caption. Video of solar flare captured from man's backyard. The California astrophotography enthusiast classified the activity was a medium-sized flare. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists.
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Last chance to join our Costa Rica Star Party! Learn about the Moon in a great new book New book chronicles the space program. Dave's Universe Year of Pluto. Groups Why Join? Astronomy Day. The Complete Star Atlas. On May 1, , the star next door erupted. In , English astronomer Richard Carrington was making this sketch of sunspots left , when he saw two beads of light emerge from the large cluster of spots near the top. Carrington drew the first appearance of the flare as two bean-shaped regions nestled in among the spots labeled A and B in close-up at right.
Five minutes later, the two white spots had drifted to the right and faded considerably marked C and D. Forgotten flares Trees have long memories. That, however, is still modest compared with some other stars in our galaxy. Super flares If life does exist on the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, it probably has a rough go of it. The star Proxima Centauri and its neighboring duo of Alpha Centauri A and B are the closest stars to the sun, lying a mere 4.
Proxima, the nearest of the trio, is a dim red orb with frequent, powerful flares that buffet the Earth-mass planet that orbits close to it. Solar eclipse Prepare for a "ring of fire" on June Ask Astro : What will happen to Earth when the Sun dies? The Beginning to the End of the Universe : Our solar system's origin.
What will happen to the planets when the Sun becomes a red giant? Cosmos: Origin and Fate of the Universe. Astronomy's Moon Globe. These are parts of the Sun where the magnetic field is particularly strong and complicated and because of this there is a lot of magnetic energy associated with these regions. When the energy that has built up in the active region is released we see a flare. This is what a flare looks like when we look at it in X-rays with the Yohkoh satellite. We can see the bright flare on the West limb of the Sun - East and West are swapped on the Sun because we're looking at it rather than actually being on the Sun!
The image on the right is a close up of the flare loop that we see in soft X-rays. The colours are showing us where the hottest parts are, so the hottest bit is the bright yellow at the top of the loop. The blue lines are a sketch of how we think the magnetic field lines look and where we think the energy is being released.
The white contours circles are telling us that there is more energetic emission than the soft X-rays happening as well-we call this hard X-ray emission. This particular image came from the GSFC solar flare theory pages The first solar flare was seen in when Carrington and Hodgson were independently monitoring sunspots. This one actually was seen in visible light and they saw a sudden brightening. Of course this wasn't the first flare the Sun had actually produced, just the first one that we'd ever been able to see!
How much energy do they produce? The amount of energy that's released in a typical flare is about the same as megaton bombs exploding all at once.
That's about 10 million times more than the energy released by a volcanic explosion! How long do they last?
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