Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Spectacular Stellar Explosion

I wanted to get something science-y in today, and since this has been all over the place, I figured I would mention it. Yesterday morning (June 7th) there was a massive explosion on the surface of the Sun. The video can be seen below, and is spectacular.


To describe the event, the Solar Dynamics Observatory science team says: “The Sun unleashed an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare with a substantial coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7 that is visually spectacular. The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface.”

“SDO observed the flare’s peak at 1:41 AM EST. SDO recorded these images in extreme ultraviolet light and they show a very large explosion of cool gas. It is somewhat unique because at many places in the eruption there seems to be even cooler material — at temperatures less than 80,000K.”

Storm Warning: NOAA forecasters estimate a greater than 25% chance of geomagnetic storms on June 9th. That's when a CME from the magnificent flare of June 7th is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. You can follow more Sun news on SpaceWeather.com.


22 comments:

BigMike said...

This is awesome on so many different levels....

HiFi said...

This is fantastic. You know what would be awesome? a compilation of solar flares to the tune of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture.

Zombie said...

We're all doomed!! lol.

Unknown said...

Very nice video. Solar flares are extremely powerful. Thank you for sharing as always :)

ed said...

hope nothing bad happens to us

Inhia said...

Hi, I am a roofer. I wish everyone in the weather forecasting profession would tighten up and learn more about these things. They have been so off this month >.< THANK YOU for this post! very very cool. Without you I'd never have seen it

Unknown said...

awesome

Toliver Edge said...

Whoa, that's crazy looking. I hope all communications stay up when this hits.

Daniel said...

spectacular indeed

Patti D. said...

It's amazing, let's hope the Sun holds up for some years

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Dejch said...

i've seen this one b4 somewhere else.. it is amazing!

Solsby Kid said...

Wow, thats amazing! Pretty sure ive seen it on TV before tho xD

Blk Jesus said...

yeah ive seen this everywhere very cool looking

phthalo. said...

That is quite frankly both beautiful and frightening.

JayPower said...

Damn this is just beautifull!

-E- said...

oh man i wonder if anything will be visible in London. probably not.

Triper said...

Wow it IS spectacular!

Melanie said...

That is so cool - too bad we won't see it on the evening news.

Dave said...

Yeah it makes you realise just how tenuous our existence is here on Earth.

Anonymous said...

Hope the sun doesn't get mad at us one day soon lol

A Beer for the Shower said...

First the rapture, now the sun's exploding? I need to build a bomb shelter.

Moobeat said...

oh cool

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