Two Huge Holes In the Sun Spotted

An anonymous reader writes "Japanese scientists have spotted two huge holes on the sun's magnetic field, and it appears there is some reason to be concerned about. The holes, called coronal holes, are gateways for solar material and gas to spill out into space, according to space.com. The gaps in the sun's magnetic field make a hole through its atmosphere, letting gas out, NASA has said."

sure

[larry bagina]

*sniff *sniff*
"The Sun did it".
We all know it was Cowboy Neil.

Exactly.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a hole, gas comes out, but it doesn't do much to harm Earth.

Don't panic

[vmxeo]

Don't freak out that there's now an opening in the corona. Freak out when a celestial lime slice gets wedged it.

Re:So...

[mysidia]

Why is there reason to be "concerned"? It is an interesting find, but that solar gas won't do much to harm Earth.

The concern is that gas escape from our sun might actually burn out and go red giant in 5.4 billion years instead of 5.5 billion years, reducing the lifetime of earth by perhaps 200000000 years or so.

Re:And the concern is...?

[RightwingNutjob]

For years man has yearned to destroy the sun. Now he has a reason: self-defense.

Re:Exactly.

[by (1706743)]

Clouds actually do NOT contribute. Having a high albedo, they reflect a lot of incoming sunlight back into space.

Am I the only one who often misreads/mispronounces "albedo" as "libido"?

I guess that could send the wrong message to friends when you're sitting outside staring at the moon and commenting on its reflectivity...