Scary, but not really scary!


A half a million miles long ‘solar whip’ is on the surface of the sun. The radiation from the eruption will create a geomagnetic storm. It will hit earth today. We are the audience. We watch big games. No, we do not play with fire.

Comments

  1. says

    Scientists have long predicted that a single solar storm could wipe out our communications infrastructure in a few hours but the probability is extremely low. Think of the surface area of a sphere of 93 million miles and the diameter of the earth of 4000 miles. It does not matter whether the distances are measured in kilometers or miles, since we are only interested in the ratio. There is a very low chance of actually getting hit by a great lance of magnetic plasma.

    R = distance to sun 93000000

    r = radius of earth 4000

    (PI*r*r) % 4 * PI * R * R

    = r*r % 4 * R * R = (r%2*R)^2

    = (2000 % 93000000)^2 say.

    $ X<- 2000.0%93000000

    $ X*X

    4.62e-10

  2. StevoR says

    Not fire but hotter still
    This plasma of the Sun
    Entwined it curls
    Springs magnetic lines
    It leaps and dances on.

    Against the void
    Our daytime star
    Is haloed by such stuff
    Corona fiery an AU off
    Glory in each one.

    How many flares and spots and blasts
    From aeons since its birth
    Our local star that shines so far
    Long may its beauty last

    (But please no major solar storm that takes out satellites, power grids and worse!)

    Cheers Taslima, great clip. 🙂

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