Coronal Mass Ejection Hits Earth 154
astroengine writes "On Tuesday, the Earth was hit by a coronal mass ejection (CME), triggering a 'moderate' geomagnetic storm, igniting aurorae at high latitudes. The CME in question was launched from the sun early on Sunday and space weather scientists predicted its arrival on Aug. 3 — the vast magnetic bubble of solar plasma arrived on schedule."
Reminds me of a Star Trek: TNG episode... (Score:3, Interesting)
where Dr. Crusher was commanding the Enterprise. She used Dr. Raega's (Farengi scientist) metaphasic shield to enter a star's corona with the Borg in persuit, and then fired the phasers at the star just below the Borg ship.
Moral of the story? Sucks get caught in a CME.
Re:Thank goodness there's no damage (Score:3, Interesting)
just cuz im in my nitpick mood, the origin of the word meteorology is already astronomical. It was believed that meteors were part of earths weather system. So I think this new field should be called meteorology, and the old field should be called Geoweatherology... or Global Warming
... oh yeah http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/why-is-the-study-of-weather-called-meteorology-and-where-did-the-term-come-from [bigsiteofa...gfacts.com]
Photo of Aurora consequent to CME (Score:5, Interesting)
Took this photo of the aurora [flickr.com] last night in the short window of full darkness before the moon came up.
There will be another shooting opportunity tonight, if the geomagnetic storm continues.
A serious question (Score:3, Interesting)
So, how much additional mass did the earth obtain? I'm guessing that most of it was hydrogen, but it would be cool to get even a ball park figure.
A few liters (at STP), a few moles, a kilogram, immeasurably small, or much more? Somebody who is more familiar with the field has to have made an estimate. Was it all energy or was mass actually transferred?