Sun Produces Strongest Flare Ever Recorded

idontneedanickname writes "The BBC is reporting about the newest flare unleashed by the sun. According to NASA's SOHO website, "Today word came from the SEC that their best estimate was X28. We have a new number 1 X-ray flare for the record books." As usual there are magnificent images to be admired." This one's not headed straight for us...

Other source

[DJ Rubbie]

Space.com covered [space.com]. it yesterday, with an update today. The bottom of the article has two cool animated gif's that showed the X-ray sensor blinded after the flare, and the subsequent coronal mass that was ejected.

The high activity may repeat in two weeks

[poszi]

The sunspots that produced these powerful flares during last days moved across the solar limb. They are now on the far side of the Sun. However, such huge suspots can last quite long and it is likely they will still be active after two weeks when the appear again on the side of the Sun facing Earth.

Re:Impressive,

[October_30th]

Actually, I think we can measure sun's activity over thousands of years based on the barium levels in arctic/antarctic ice.

sun cam

[Major_Small]

there's actually a webcam pointed at the sun... i'ts updated every 4 hours and can be found here [space.com].

According to Space.com: The image is generated by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which sits partway between Earth and the Sun.

Re:Too bad it isn't heading this way

[Anonymous Coward]

Might I suggest this? [darksky.org]

Here's a good Q&A

[GFW]

No, sunspots are systems far larger than and completely unaffected by any normal infalling material. Here's a good Q&A at space.com [space.com] covering the flares in general.

GOES Graph Showing Saturation

[mikewren420]

Don't know if anyone else saved the GOES XRay Flux image:

http://cyberial.com/images/cme.gif

Pretty impressive saturation!

Astronomy picture of the day

[rodney dill]

... and as usual the Astronomy Picture [nasa.gov] of the Day, already has a good picture posted

Re:The high activity may repeat in two weeks

[Anonymous Coward]

Here ya go.

Limb: Astronomy. The circumferential edge of the apparent disk of a celestial body.

Ever been to google.com??

Re:Too bad it isn't heading this way

[Anonymous Coward]

You gotta be looking up at the right time!

I live in southern Germany, and last Thursday night at about 10:00 pm CET was absolutely the most spectacular auroral display - the whole northern section of the sky was bright red/orange with streaks of bright light fading in and out that looked like searchlights.

The whole thing was over in 45 minutes to an hour, but definitely unforgettable...

Re:This is unexpected. . ?

[DunbarTheInept]

There's a simpler explanation - today this stuff gets reported more than it used to. In the 1920's, if there was a solar flare, it certainly wouldn't appear in the newspaper. It's just like the myth that we are a more violent society than before. Nope - we just get to hear about violent news from farther afield than before, so what previously we would have remanined ignorant of we now get on the nightly news even if it's from halfway around the world.

Re:Impressive,

[barakn]

Beryllium, not barium.

Re: X scale

[Anonymous Coward]

My question is this: What do the numbers mean? Is it like the richter scale ( powers of 10 ) or what?

X-Ray flux is measured in Watts per square meter (averaged out over a period of time, usually over a minute).

10^-8 is the lower threshhold of an A-Class
10^-7 is the lower threshhold of a B-Class
10^-6 is the lower threshhold of a C-Class
10^-5 is the lower threshhold of a M-Class
10^-4 is the lower threshhold of a X-Class
10^-3 is the lower threshhold of a X10-Class
10^-2 would be the lower threshhold of an X100-Class

So, the X-28 flare saturated the detectors of the GOES satellites with 0.0028 W/m^2 energy.

Re:What X?? class would cook Earth

[A55M0NKEY]

Using the above scale, where X50 = 0.005 W/m^2 and the earth having total surface area of 509600000000000 m^2 ( half of which faces the sun ) I get the impact on the side of the earth facing the sun to be 1.25 * 10^12 = 1,250,000,000,000 Watts. 1,250 gigawatts. I read that a hurricane puts out up to 2*10^14 watts = 200,000,000,000,000 watts = 200,000 gigawatts. So it is much less powerful than a hurricane. Though the magnetosphere is much bigger than the surface area of the earth. I don't know how big.

The earth is 6,378,100 meters radius 2 * pi * r^2 = surface area of magnetosphere facing the sun ( 6.3781 * 10^7 )^2 = 36 * 10^14 * pi * 2 = 4.52 * 10^16 watts = 45,200,000,000,000,000 = 45,200,000 gigawatts Much bigger than a hurricane, but spread out more.

Re:Soace Station denizens

[confused one]

astronauts have about an 8 minute warning before the radiation for the flare gets to them

No they don't. It takes about 8 1/2 minutes for light to get from the Sun to the Earth. By the time someone on Earth knows about it, that 8 1/2 minutes have already passed -- we find out about it when the light reaches us; which, is the same time the x-rays and gamma reach us...

Even if Soho is way out ahead of us, it still takes the same amount of time for the signal to travel from Soho to Earth as it does for the radiation to travel from Soho to Earth.

Now, they do have warning (hours) before the plasma (mostly protons and electrons with some neutrons & alpha thrown in for good measure) reaches them...