Three More Solar Flares

Evil Adrian writes "Space.com reports that the sun shot off three more solar flares on Monday. This is quite a historic period for solar activity." The article breaks down the recent flares, and what the effects have been. Update: 11/05 01:57 GMT by T : cyberMalex writes "Space.com is reporting the 10th in a string of major solar flares which have been errupting from the sun over the past two weeks. "This one saturated the X-ray detectors on the NOAA's GOES satellites that monitor the Sun. The jury is therefore out on the definitive classification of the flare." "Other scientists have indicated the flare may indeed be an X20 or stronger. Only one X20 event has been seen in recent years, and it was not Earth-directed and had little effect.""

Biblical

[GaelenBurns]

I wish I had my Revelations better memorized.

it..

[xao gypsie]

it appears that i was right the first time. Shamash, the mesopotamian sun god is really angry. run to your ziggurats all ye heathen, and make your sacrifices it is too late and we are decimated under his awesome power!!!
(for a niminal fee, i will be willing to act as priest...)

xao

I wonder why

[MikeXpop]

George Bush hasn't added the Sun to the axis of evil. That evildoer is most definitely threatening America's freedom. It's attacked Ear^H^H^H America 6 times now! It must be stopped.

makes you wonder...

[mantera]

whether environmentalist might just claim this is due to global warming; i won't be surprised if they do!!!

Re:makes you wonder...

[mgs1000]

If we had only ratified Kyoto!

From the article

[UrgleHoth]

The Sun cut loose with three severe flares in less than 24 hours through Monday morning

cut loose? Is thr journalist trying to make a gastrointestinal metaphor here?

3 flares in 24 hours, BAH!

[gasgesgos]

From the article:The Sun cut loose with three severe flares in less than 24 hours


That's nothing special, I've cut loose with three severe flares in one hour before!

Although I didn't cause pretty lights in the sky, I just cleared the room :(

Re:Biblical

[mr_z_beeblebrox]

I wish I had my Revelations better memorized.

"And the horsemen spoke "Behold 9 solar prominences" And the Earth was smited by an X15.

Time to upgrade...

[JamesD_UK]

my tinfoil hat...
... and underwear.

Lets slashdot the Sun

[G4from128k]

I suggest that nerds everywhere strip off their clothes and go outside. The resulting flare of brightness should knock those coronal mass ejections away from the Earth.

Either we do that or we cover the planet in SPF 45 lotion.

All this sun action..

[grasshoppa]

...and I bet you geek STILL don't get a tan. :)

Re:Aurora Cam

[JamesD_UK]

How about sending Red Adair off to the sun to cool things off a bit?

Re:Guilt-/*&?%*?/

[sreid]

does it affect affect &?*?23% web (_*&_(&*

Re:I wonder why

[JayPee]

No shit.. it's a big thermonuclear device which is showering us with deadly radiation.

WMD!! In space!! GOD HELP US!

Re:Aurora Cam

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's time for Bruce Willis to blow up the Sun.

Peloponnesian war

[Anonymous Coward]

Thucydides you are my beeotch... ;-)

Solar flares

[Neurotoxic666]

Microsun has just released a critical security patch for their Winsun OS. Apparently, the latest solar flares were caused by a major security hole letting important stuff escape.

Gill Bates was reported saying "This is no big deal. Everything is under control. Realy. Security is our top priority and we will make sure this does not happen in the next Sunhorn OS."

Bennifer

[HarveyBirdman]

What did we have to sacrifice to prevent this again?? i can't read mayan..

Oddly enough, we have to sacrifice Ben and JLo.

The Mayan line in question is "Big head, snake, rock shaped thing, potato with teeth, something that looks like a broken Trane air conditioning unit, something with three legs and four ears, a bigger potato with teeth and breasts, Jabba The Hut, another big head, a pile of little tiny heads, a medium sized head with a smaller head next to it, an aborted fetus someone inflated with an air pump."

The rough translation is "annoying couple (in unity) with mighty hair and (ass) who commit crime of that (terrible) Gigli."

Yes, there's a heiroglyph for "Gigli".

Hey, they were WAY ahead of their time.

Related Link [mnsu.edu]

My mother-in-law's theory...

[elwoodblues16]

My fiance's Mom has her own theory as to why they sun is 'wigging out'.
She says it's because a meteor crashed into the sun.
I've had my work cut out for me, trying to explain how 'crashing' a ping-pong ball into Lake Michigan isn't going to do much.

Re:Nothing really matters.

[DNS-and-BIND]

They'll certainly know it was us that caused all the environmental disasters that are currently causing all the problems on the Sun right now. Of course, by then, a "sunny" day will be a distant memory, what with all the pollution-choked skies.

They'll care when the sun blows up....

[Anonymous Coward]

As will happen later on this month.

Probably won't make it into any history books though.

What George Dubbya said...

[KojakBang]

We will not be scared of these "solar evil-doers." The Sun is part of an "axis of stellar evil" that we must stamp out. We will make no distinction between solar flares, and the stars that sponsor these flares. Our nation will launch a campaign to stamp out all stellar terrorism in our galaxy. These nukyular furnaces of fear will no longer terrorize our nation, or Texas. Anybody wanna peanut?

Re:Nothing really matters.

[Chester K]

about it, can YOU name any war that happened 1000 years ago? How about all the leaders of a country somewhere?

No, but around a 1000 years ago there was one of the most dramatic periods of solar activity they'd seen in those times!

Re:From the article

[c0bw3b]

Hmm, I was thinking of it as a thermonuclear money shot, myself.

Nice Headline

[Captain McCrank]

Sun on Fire, Unleashes 3 More Major Flares

Scott McNealy is such a fucking loose cannon. When will his handlers reign in his hockey-rage?

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN, PLEASE STOP SCOTT!

When is Bush going

[praedor]

to pull his head out and finally declare the Sun a terrorist? We should be lobbing bombs back at the Sun for firing on us not just once, but 3 or 4 times! Direct shots, no glancing blows. This obvious aggression against the US cannot be tolerated anymore.

Nuke the Sun!

hh

Re:Aurora Cam

[Shakrai]

SOLAR PAUSE? Giant sunspots 486 and 488 are about to disappear from view, carried over the western limb of the sun by our star's 27-day rotation. This means Earth-directed explosions will stop... for a while. Big sunspots often persist for many weeks. These two might reappear on the eastern side of the sun in two weeks, the time required for them to transit the far side of the sun.

Quoted from Spaceweather [spaceweather.com] Perhaps those of us who missed out on the Auroras (BOTH times for me) due to bad weather/timing will get another shot? Think this is still going on in two weeks?

Re:Aurora Cam

[zephc]

"Does this recent solar activity make any of you feel uneasy?"

No no, it's a perfectly natural, healthy thing for a star of his age to... want to experiment in self-gratification. You see, a star that age is still learning more about itself, and should be encouraged to do so, in a healthy way. Of course, our star may be doing this a bit too often right now, but it is a novelty that will soon wear off, and once he has become more accustomed to his self, he may do it a lot less. In the meantime, we here on earth must not make our Sun feel ashamed of this, merely support him, and try not to get hit in the face.

Re:Aurora Cam

[dolo666]

"No no, it's a perfectly natural, healthy thing for a star of his age to... want to experiment in self-gratification."

Your comparison to solar flares and masturbation made me laugh my ass off! Good job. :)

I can picture a couple of 1950's parents, and that announcer saying things like, "It's healthy and natural to want to express your sexuality, Sun, but please do it in your own private area, not where the WHOLE WORLD can see..."

Re:Peloponnesian war

[Trolling4Dollars]

...or the invasion of the Goths...

Dood... get your history straight. The goths didn't come about until the 1980s when Siouxie and the Banshees invaded. ;P

Re:Aurora Cam

[Shakrai]

It might be something to worry about when we have the means of evacuating the solar system, or at least the planet. Even if someone knows the sun is going to explode in a week, is there any reason for us to worry? We can't do anything to stop it nor can we save ourselves, so why worry?

No, we need to know about it so we can all eat, drink, and be merry in the time that we have left.... then all feel really stupid (not to mention owe apologies to that girl in the cubical down the hall) when nothing happens ;) Y2K anyone?

Re:I wonder why

[DogIsMyCoprocessor]

Bush - "The more solar flares are shot at us, the more it shows the desperation of the Sun."

Re:I wonder why

[pclminion]

I was once in a university class called "Alpine Environments" in which we studied, well, the obvious. There was a student in class who seemed quite literally to be on acid at all times. He was barely comprehensible when he spoke, rocked back and forth in his seat constantly, and was generally pretty creepy.

One day in the class the professor says "Now, at elevations above 9000 feet it is extremely important to wear sunblock, since the ultraviolet radiation from the sun is much stronger where the air is thinner."

This guy shoots his hand up with a crazed look on his face and screams: "My God, are you saying there's RADIATION coming from the SUN?!" It took about five minutes of soothing, but he finally calmed back down and seemed to accept the fact that light, indeed, is radiation.

So don't laugh too hard. Some people might well be stupid enough to take your joke literally.

Re:Biblical

[The Fun Guy]

So do I. The book in the Bible is "Revelation", not "Revelations". God will know his own, pal.

Arnold Schwarzenegger?

[Omega]

Doesn't anyone else see the correlation between Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming governor of California, the Yankees losing the World Series to the Florida Marlins and the repeated solar flares? I'm counting at least 3 horsemen of the apocalypse here.

Re:Arnold Schwarzenegger?

[Lord_Slepnir]

We still need Microsoft Linux, so we'll be safe for a while.

Re:Aurora Cam

[lonesome phreak]

I was listening to NPR about something like this, but it was a person worrying about a giant planet-killer. My opinion was "so?". I've got other things to worry about than solar flares or planet-killers. It's not like I could get away anyway.

How quickly we forget

[Syncdata]

That the apocalypse was narrowly averted in the National league and American leage championship series.
If Boston or chicago had won, I might be donning my tinfoil hat, but as it is, no worries.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Aurora Cam

[timeOday]

It was unprecedented to have a large flare on an off year. It was unprecedented to have a second one. And now it's unprecedented to have a whole flurry of them within a week.

Well, it certainly puts to shame those naysayers who continue to insist that this is all just a natural phenomenon of some sort; that man is not to blame. You know the type, driving their SUVs to work at the coal factory. How many more "coincidences" will it take to convince them?!

Rotate Right operation

[autophile]

From the article: Both sunspots are about to rotate off the right side of the Sun's face...

...where they will first fill the carry bit, then reappear on the most significant side, or left side, of the Sun's face...

Here comes ANOTHER one...

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Does this recent solar activity make any of you feel uneasy? I mean... is it time for Bruce Willis to suit up again and save the planet? Nine X-class solar flares... eeeek. That has to be bad.

Don't know about bad. But there was another one - a REALLY big one - about 1930 GMT / 11:30 PST / 2:30 EST. See this [noaa.gov] page for the X-ray intensity at the GEOS satellites - at least until it horizons out in a few more hours.

Note that the peak is beyond the saturation of the instrument. BIG.

Also today:

[sharkey]

Seemingly, there is no reason for these extraordinary, intergalactical upsets. Only Dr. Hans Zarkov, formerly of NASA, has provided any explanation.

This Mondays unprecedented solar flares are no cause for alarm.