There's no other way of saying this: the sun is going bonkers!

From spaceweather.com:

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.

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Luckily those sunspots are almost out of sight on the other side of the sun. But even so they can still affect the earth. And they may still be there in two weeks or so when the sun has completed it's revolution. Stay tuned

Scully

scary

so is this why sky telly is going crackers?

and the internet is a little tempremantal!

I've just been reading on another website that scientists think it might have reached X50!! Let's hope those darned sunspots have settled down before they turn their face to us again

Scully

I don't know very much about this sort of thing but the hypothesis on the sun is that it is about half way through its life span and they estimate that it has a further 5 billion years before it is exhausted of fuel. Maybe as the star gets older these solar flare's will become stronger. Apparently the earth will be burnt up before it turns into a red star I think its called then if I recollect correctly, it then becomes a white dwarf for a period.

Apologies if I haven't got the correct terminology.

Shadow

It has been a myth since ancient times and to this day, many people believe that this still occurs for them. Nowhere has there been proof that this sun exists but ladies and gentlemen I can prove it. This sun known as 'the great light of uranus' can be seen glowing at the end of the film Full Monty at the right hand side of the screen. An extraordinary piece of evidence I think you'll all agree.


Sorry couldn't resist but I promise you in the closing scene of the film the naked stripper on the right is blessed with this sun.

Shadow

Thanks Dana, great article and great picture too (I'm sure we must be able to use that somewhere on the forum!).

The Sun used to go through 11 year cycles of activity - but the recent CME's have bucked that trend a little - perhaps an anomoly? perhaps our Sun cycle theory isn't as robust as we thought. Either way, the one thing I find amazing, is that all the atoms in our bodies, bigger than hydrogen or helium, were created in Stars!!

The Master

"We are stardust, we are golden
And we have to find our way
Back to the Garden"

Oh, those hippy days

Scully

Crikey Dana, you scare me to bits sometimes

With the stories of flares or the mention of hippy days?

Scully

hehe you made a pun!!

hippys used to wear flares!!!

Hmm, my subconscious must be telling me something because I completely missed that

Scully_wearing_flowers_in_her_hair