The solar flare-a rare bright spot on the sun
2011-06-10 02:18:27 GMT
The solar flare-a rare bright spot on the sun-was not surprising that a moderate event. Space observatories in the last year recorded about 70 such solar flares, each about ten times weaker than extreme flares, of which only two have occurred since 2007.
Instead, researchers were shocked by what an unusual amount of material lofted up, expanded, and fell down over about half the area of the sun. The event is the simultaneous release of particles in space is called a coronal mass ejection (CME).
This totally caught us by surprise. There was not much going on with this place, but when it came from behind the sun, all of a sudden there was a torch and a large ejection of particles, \says astrophysicist Philip Chamberlin of NASA s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a of multiple spacecraft, as registered event.
We have never seen one this huge CME. Solar Flares can threaten Power Grids Chamberlin said it will take some time to figure out the energy and mass of electrons and protons blasted into space. But he noted the volume occupied a place a hundred times larger than a single Earth.
Outbreaks of particles burst from the right leg in the sun and sprayed into the room, so that the explosion miss Earth even if the explosion can brighten lights near Earth's poles, said Chamberlin.
But he warned the space weather experts are concerned about the future solar events.
Sun's 11-year cycle of activity, driven by the tangled surface magnetic field, will reach its maximum in late 2013 or early 2014. Magnetic messiness will peak around the time and prompt nasty solar storms.
We'll probably see the [extreme] flares every couple of months instead of years, , said Chamberlin.
If one of these powerful flares and coronal mass ejection-faces Earth, the particles pound satellite components of charged particles, some cards out, and potentially ruin them.
On the surface, additional stream of particles run additional electrical current through the wires and heat them up. A solar storm in 1859, for example, caused the telegraph lines to burst into flames. Power companies distribute the load to avoid such a catastrophe, but energetic solar storms can still blow the transformers causing power outages, especially during heat waves sweeping the eastern U.S. this week.
Despite the great responses, the power grid is still vulnerable. We may be in for some serious problems, Chamberlin says.
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