STEREO Satellites Spot Solar Flare Tsunami 89
westtxfun writes "The STEREO satellites recently confirmed the existence of solar mega-tsunamis when they captured height data after a sunspot recently erupted. The scale of this tsunami literally dwarfs the Earth's diameter — it was 62,000 miles high and raced across the surface at 560,000 mph! STEREO A and B orbit 90 degrees apart and luckily, one was overhead while the other saw the eruption on the limb. This gave NASA scientists enough data to confirm the tsunami wasn't a shadow, solving a modern solar mystery. The images are simply stunning, to boot."
Re:A way to solve tsunamis problems on Earth ? (Score:5, Informative)
Reading TFA is uncharacteristic for most slashdotters, but this one is definitely worthwhile.
Pun aside, the movies ARE great. RTFA please, everyone! You'll be glad you did.
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I wonder if we had anything observing the opposite side of the Sun when this happened. Seeing the effects that occur exactly opposite of the flare might tell us something about the Sun's core.
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Well, the one that was 90 degrees away will have seen the other side of the sun as well. The video on the front page doesn't show that half though.
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I wonder if we had anything observing the opposite side of the Sun when this happened.
The project's orbital information page [nasa.gov] states that the two spacecraft are currently separated by 128 degrees. (They orbit about 0.05 AU inside and outside earth's orbit, so that their orbital periods are 346 and 388 days, and their separation changes by about 44 degrees annually.) The entire sun will be visible when they achieve 180 degrees separation in February 2011. With earth based observations, the full sun will continue to be visible another eight years. A few months of contact will be lost in 2015
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If only Ulysses was still operating, we could get some polar views as well.
I suppose it would also help if Ulysses had been equipped with a camera.
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...anticipate when a CME or radiation storm will reach Earth
It'll be at least eight minutes..
is it sending a stream of neutrinos? (Score:1, Funny)
that will hit the earth's core and cause the plates to shift like in 2012?
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No, but it might be a sign that our sun is dying, and that we need to send Cilian Murphy and a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan into the sun's core to reignite it.
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A nuke the size of Manhattan is not going to have any effect on the sun, you would need a nuke the size of Jupiter to get any effect noticeable on the sun.
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Their collected hot air should be enough to get things rolling again.
Surf's up (Score:5, Funny)
kawabunga.
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Who the hell modded this "offtopic"? Waves, surfing, hello?
I swear, some of the responses and mod decisions I've been seeing on Slashdot lately make me wonder whether people are browsing in their sleep.
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Wow, a post commenting about moderation that is moderated Redundant, that is rather funny.
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The average IQ of a moderator these days sits somewhere between a sea sponge and a dog turd.
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The average IQ of a moderator these days sits somewhere between a sea sponge and a dog turd.
Hey! Why are you insulting dog turds?
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And arguably more sensuous and useful than moderators.
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How dare you insult the intelligence of moderators? I have mod points, and I'm going to mod you down right now!
Still way better than digg/reddit (Score:2)
Sure, but Slashdot still facilitates the best discussion on the net.
But I think in general as people grow up and find better things to do they move on. So it's always going to be broken because the best people move on.
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It is probably 62 miles (Score:2)
The article speaks about a 100,000 km high (62,000 mile high) tsunami. Assuming that they are referring to the initial height of the surface wave, that is no doubt a typo since the sun's diameter is only 14 times that. Likely, they meant something rather less such as 100,000 m or 100 km. That's still a big wave though.
Re:It is probably 62 miles (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah sorry, SOMEONE put a comma instead of a decimal. Growing trend.
Re:It is probably 62 miles (Score:5, Informative)
Did you see the animation? That wave looks to be easily 1/14th of the solar diameter, especially near the origin.
What I learned from this article is that sunspots explode. Never knew that; I thought they faded away...
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Ahead, not OVERhead... (Score:1, Informative)
Just correcting the summary, one spacecraft is *ahead* of the other (and of Earth) -- not "overhead". Also, they don't orbit 90-deg apart. They were ~90-deg apart for the even in question but are currently 127-deg apart. This value will increase as they continue in their orbits around the Sun. (By Feb 6, 2011 they will be 180-degrees apart, and will both be "behind" the Sun in ~mid-2015.)
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Solar wave? (Score:1, Funny)
You imbeciles, clearly they are a series of solar particles!
120, not 90 (Score:4, Informative)
They really thought it might be a shadow? (Score:4, Insightful)
FTA:
"We wondered," recalls Gurman, "is that a wave—or just a shadow of the CME overhead?"
Really? They thought it was a shadow? And what pray-tell would be shining brightly enough from above the CME material, to cast a shadow onto the surface of the Sun?
They didn't really think that through, did they?
Re:They really thought it might be a shadow? (Score:5, Insightful)
In any event, this was a comment made by a project scientist - a solar physicist - someone who probably knows more about the subject than you or I.
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Sloppy wording - absorbtion by the CME i.e. you are looking through the CME.
Re:They really thought it might be a shadow? (Score:5, Informative)
It seems counter-intuitive but the sun's corona is brighter than it's actual surface. It's possible that some cooler ejecta from a solar flare could cast a shadow.
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Too much gaming... (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone else see the gifs and think "BOOM! HEADSHOT!"
looks like a mammogram to me (Score:2)
i guess i need more RPG instead of so much TNA
Recent? Try February. (Score:2)
From the article :
Since when does 9 months ago count as 'recent' ?
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Since when does 9 months ago count as 'recent' ?
Get off my lawn!
Re:Recent? Try February. (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, I confirmed it with one of the scientists (Joe Gurman) cited in the article -- there was an article from March that was inaccurate, and this was a correction to that previous article.
But, instead of marking it as a correction, it was posted as a new article. (I can't find the older article, so I don't know if it was removed)
They also linked straight to the movie, rather than to the explanation of what is being seen in the movie, or cite the original posting of the article, which had different images:
http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/SolarTsunami.shtml [nasa.gov]
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/solar_tsunami.html [nasa.gov]
Joe also said that this was in fact "tsunami-like" in that it was the result of an initially downward wave that reflected back up, as opposed to other CMEs.
(and I probably should've added a disclaimer earlier -- I work for the STEREO Science Center)
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I'm sorry, this is /. Primary sources are not allowed to be involved in the conjectural, ad hominem disputes that pose for debate on this forum. You are welcome to contribute to some other topic, provided that you know nothing about it. Have a nice day.
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because scientists never market their theories? apparently the last conference I was at was a hallucination.
it was damned honest of the GP to provide that context. I laud him/her for it.
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Shadows? (Score:2, Troll)
Shadows on the surface of the sun?
Must have been light from Venus reflecting off some swamp gas...
2012 (Score:1)
they are building Daedalus-class ships (Score:2)
they are building Daedalus-class ships
Improved Long Distance Radio Propagation? (Score:3, Insightful)
For the sake of us amateur radio operators, I sure hope so. HF DX has sucked for the last few years.
Large CME? (Score:4, Interesting)
So what happened?
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Did it occur to you the Coronal Mass Ejection might not be pointed at us?
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The earth made its reflex save, duh.
Good thing too because the CME receives a huge bonus to damage based on the target's intelligence score.
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Haven't you been keeping up? These days it's all about mutating neutrinos and microwaving the earths core.
Popcorn, anyone?
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A watched Sun never boils (Score:2)
Well, at least STEREO proved that phrase wrong.
We now know the Sun boils and splashes like a pot of hot chili on a stove. Now, who's going to clean up the cosmic stove top of all the solar splatters?
Hey Poindexter! (Score:3, Informative)
It's tsunamis, not tsunami's.
Shades of Praxis? (Score:2)
"Stardate 2322.1, Captain's log, Stereo A, Linux commanding. After three years, I have completed my first assignment as master of this vessel, cataloging gaseous planetary anomalies in Alpha Quadrant. We're continuing our mission under full gravitational power. I'm pleased to report that ship and programming have functioned well."
*starts a cronjob*
*rumble...rattle-rattle-RATTLE-RATTLE..*
ALERT! ALERT!
"Sir, we're getting a massive energy reading, dead ahead!"
"On screen!" ...
"My...God! Shields! SHIELDS!
Only 2400 MT? (Score:2)
"packing as much energy as 2400 megatons of TNT"
That seems a bit low, doesn't it? Only two orders of magnitude more than what we've produced in a single nuke explosion?
Too Much DBZ (Score:2)
Am I the only one who, upon reading "Solar Flare Tsunami", said it in the delivery of some overpowered fighter yelling his attack out:
SOLAR FLARE TSUNAMI!
RAGING DEATH BLAST!
LINEAR TAX RATE!
SPINNING SIDE KICK!
HADOUKEN!