On Saturday, September 24, 2011, at 09:40 UT, the majority of the folks employed by NASA were most likely asleep. But NASA s Photo voltaic Dynamic Observatory never sleeps: this is only job would be to stare in the Sun, 24 hrs each day, every single day.
Positive thing it will, too, since it caught quite a decent-sized photo voltaic flare erupting in the Sun s disk in those days:
Isn t that awesome Make certain you place the resolution to a minimum of 720p making it full screen for that full effect.
The flare was technically class X1.9, that is in the low finish from the greatest group of flare energy. It blasted out radiation over the electromagnetic spectrum (this animation shows the sun's rays within the far-ultraviolet), and most likely launched a minimum of just as much energy like a billion one-megaton tanks.
Positive thing we re 150 million kilometers away. Yegads.
The flickering put me for any sec, but when you pause the recording throughout the flare, you ll view it s because of the flare altering its brightness. The program accustomed to produce the animation instantly makes up about total brightness within an image, then when the flare will get vibrant the general image brightness will get switched lower. The brightness varied pretty quickly, altering on the time scale of only a couple of minutes because the animation is increased we have seen it flickering. The whole flaring episode lasts just under an hour or so.
The X-shape, streaks, and vertical line the thing is throughout the flare are instrument items and aren t real. They re such as the mix-formed diffraction spikes the thing is in vibrant star images with Hubble.
The flare originated from a sunspot cluster known as Active Region 1302 "amateur" astronomer Alan Friedman got an incredible shot of these just yesterday, seen here (click to ensolarnate).
You will find huge powers saved within the magnetic area lines piercing individuals spots. Individuals lines get twisted up, and may all of a sudden snap, delivering that energy being an intense burst of sunshine in addition to a blast of subatomic contaminants (for particulars about this, look at this earlier publish how sunspots make photo voltaic flares).
That region is fairly feisty, and also the likelihood of us getting good flares from individuals spots are very good. The Sun's Rays s rotation is presently taking them toward the middle of the disk, in which a sizeable explosion will be targeted at us, and particle waves in the blast may then interact more effectively with this magnetic area. We might be getting aurorae from their store, and when things go well that's all we ll get! A large blast can harm satellites, as well as put astronauts around the ISS in danger. We on the floor are pretty safe, because the Earth s air soaks up rays that's why we must launch satellites like SDO into space, to allow them to identify that energy to begin with!
However, a large blast can shake our planet s magnetic area, inducing a present in the earth that may really overload utility lines. We are able to get power shutdowns from may be, also it s happened before. This can be a real problem that may do millions as well as vast amounts of dollars of infrastructure damage (including money throughout the economy lost throughout the blackout). I understand lots of photo voltaic physicists are worried relating to this scenario, and are attempting to get both energy companies and also the government to work hard at it. I really hope they are doing. We re still approaching the peak from the photo voltaic cycle between mid-2013 approximately, and flares such as the one Saturday will in all probability become more common.
Credits: NASA/SDO Alan Friedman
Related posts:
- First earthward-heading photo voltaic flare from the cycle
- Photo voltaic storm monitored completely in the Sun to Earth
- Another large photo voltaic flare
- Researchers see sunspots developing 60,000 km below the sun's rays s surface!
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