OT:What the hell is coming out of the sun, headed our way??

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I have heard of some event, I remember reading about when the astronomers all saw it, that took place on the sun. Apparently, some gigantic explosion blew out a chunk of the sun and a piece is heading our way. I read that several astronomers, all spread across the globe, all saw the same event. THere was some kind of mad, fevered panic as they all thought it was "Deep Impact", Dejavu! But alas, no! So what gives, I hear it is coming right at us afterall. Urban Legend? Diane, I know you know.

Semper Fidelis, Richard, USMC

-- Richard,USMC (rkb65@hotmail.com), July 01, 1999

Answers

Just a cloud of charged particles, a little thicker than the normal vacuum. Watch for Northern Lights if you are in the country.

It is possible for such particle clouds to cause various other effects - shortwave transmission is the most affected. Rarely, satellites are damaged, even more rarely power transmission lines may overload and shut down. For the latter to happen is the Solar equivalent of a '100 year flood' of the Mississippi River. Not something to hold your breath for.

Since moving charged particles will spiral towards the poles of a magnet, any effect will be more pronounced as you approach the MAGNETIC poles.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), July 01, 1999.


I think Stan Deyo's site is one place to read about this. He should know since he seems to be REALLY far out.

-- Sand Mueller (smueller@azalea.net), July 01, 1999.

Richard, every time I glance at your question posed, in the list of threads, I chuckle. Leave it to a Marine to get straight to the point. When you've discovered a satisfactory explanation, would you please post your take on it? Something tells me It would be of great value. Good luck!

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), July 01, 1999.

Pretty - wasn't it? http://www.millennium-ark.net/index_images/SXT_990626.gif

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), July 01, 1999.

Stan Deyo occasionally addresses "far out" subjects like Astronomy and Plasma Physics. He has been known to "go off the deep end" with such esoteric sciences as Vulcanology, Geothermal Dynamics and the study of ocean currents. He's even been known to indulge in Mathematics and (gasp!) Computer Programming! But I hear that he washes his hands afterwards.

-- Greg Lawrence (greg@speakeasy.org), July 02, 1999.


Don't worry too much about it, but there are two possible impacts:

1. Satellites are vulnerable to those floods of charged particles. They're "hardened" against them, but there's a much above-average risk of losing a satellite during a solar storm. This is especialy true if the sun surprises us and produces something off the top end of what the satellites were designed for (unlikely, not impossible, not a threat to folks on the ground)

2. Very long electricity transmission lines can be affected (ones hundreds, or particularly thousands of miles long). Basically the storm can induce a near-DC current in the transmission line. The transformers at the ends are designed for AC; the DC causes them to heat up more than normal, reducing the line's capacity or (worst case) shutting it down. This problem wasn't appreciated during the last solar maximum and CAnada, in particular, had problems. Hopefully the lessons were learnt and applied in the 11 years since.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), July 02, 1999.


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