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Space Sun Microsystems

Giant Plasma Cloud Bursts From the Sun (space.com) 39

Posted by BeauHD from the no-need-to-panic dept.
SonicSpike shares a report from Space.com: A giant cloud of magnetized plasma exploded from a sunspot hidden on the far side of the sun that might turn to face Earth only two days from now, so get ready for some solar fireworks. The explosion that erupted from behind the sun's eastern edge in the early morning of Tuesday (Jan. 3) was a so-called coronal mass ejection (CME), a burst of particles from the sun's upper atmosphere, or corona. The CME was accompanied by a powerful solar flare that lasted an overwhelming six hours, solar scientist Keith Strong said on Twitter. Neither the flare nor the CME were directed at Earth, but experts warn that the hidden sunspot that produced them will soon be facing the planet as the sun rotates.

Yesterday's flare and CME were detected by multiple sun-observing spacecraft including the joint NASA/European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory mission (SOHO) and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The measurements helped scientists to determine that the sunspot, or active region, that produced the bursts, will move to the Earth-facing portion of the sun's disk within two days, according to Space Weather. [...] The British space weather forecaster Met Office predicts low solar activity in the next couple of days with a potential increase expected toward the end of this week as the mysterious sunspot emerges at the sun's eastern edge.
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Giant Plasma Cloud Bursts From the Sun More

Giant Plasma Cloud Bursts From the Sun

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  • What do you reckon the amazing powers will be?

  • Well yes, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ebcdic ( 39948 ) on Friday January 06, 2023 @06:51AM (#63184316)
    .. this is not really news. It's like saying "Giant Electric Discharge from Cloud". There will probably be dozens of these this year.

  • Darn Darn Darn (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If only it would hit earth and fry all electronics including and especially military grade.
    https://www.history.com/news/a... [history.com]

    Then we can get back to Normal.

    • Back to normal in this case would mean back to colonial life, no electricity, no modern life of any kind. No electric heating, no electric lights, no fridge or freezer. The 1950's would be science-fiction again.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

        It's not hyperbole to say that "billions would die" as a result. I can't even wrap my head around anyone who would actually cheer for such a thing to happen.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Projections I've heard for EMP attack, which would be similar, would be 92% of USA starving to death before they could get to subsistence with farming with animals and hunting what critters remain. At least here in N. Texas, we can trap / shoot hogs forever and never run them extinct, they keep telling us, so starvation should not take everyone. Want to make some arrows with sharp stones on the end? Might get back there with a "Carrington Event" level CME.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by G00F ( 241765 )

            The amount of wildlife from elk down to rabbits is only enough to feed like .1% of the population. Think this xkcd kind of shows what I'm talking about: https://xkcd.com/1338/ [xkcd.com]

            Once everyone with any ability to hunt start looking for food it would be a matter of weeks before things are hunted to the point of extinction. But the majority of those that are more capable of hunting are also likely to have multiple weeks of supplies already...

            but my point is, is there a very little wild game for when a real situat

  • So if the sunspot spins towards Earth, does the erupted matter also match due to gravitational lock? Or is that impact minimal and it flies off into interstellar space?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Whibla ( 210729 )

      I am no expert, but I 'believe' that the path of the plasma that has already been ejected is now largely down to it's momentum, mostly 'directly' away from the sun, with a relatively 'slight' drift due to the sun's rotational inertia. This latter, though, will almost certainly be (well, potentially) outweighed by any directional kick given to the plasma by the rupture of the field lines when it was ejected. In other words, since the spot was nearly opposite the Earth when it spat out the CME in question, th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )
      The ejected material (mostly) sprays radially outward in a constant direction compared to the fixed star background. That it: it doesn't travel with the sun's 27-day revolutionary period*, nor is it substantially affected by the gravity of any planets it encounters.

      * Caveat: the ejected material can still be influenced by the Sun's magnetic field, which (mostly) rotates with the sun, but doesn't usually have much radial twist except nearby (within a few solar radii). So it is possible for the CME to ge

      • "something to worry about."

        We won't likely survive another 200 years as a really large flare will fuse virtually all our solid state devices as well as wreck the power grid. Put head between legs, kiss ass goodbye.

    • The coronal mass ejection (CME) from the far side of the sun is not a threat to Earth. Those particles are flying out somewhat like shrapnel from an explosion, and away from us because of its initial orientation. If the same sunspot were to cause another large CME after it rotates into view, it might have some effect.

      These events don't have to be "aimed" at Earth to potentially effect us. The cloud of material ejected from the Sun can cover a 180-degree spread: video [youtube.com] .

  • I miss my plasma TV (Score:3)

    by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Friday January 06, 2023 @09:30AM (#63184574) Homepage

    It had the best and brightest picture I've ever seen in a TV. Maybe with more bursts like these, they'll be able to start producing them again.

    • I blame the fad for ridiculously large screens. Each time you double the screen dimensions you quadruple the quantity of plasma required. No wonder there's a plasma shortage.
      • Larger screens have deterrence advantages. During the 27 inch CRT era, I once saw someone running across 101 near Palo Alto, carrying a television.
      • You're joking, but your joke begs a question about the size limitations of different TV technologies. We now have 97 inch OLED screen TVs (that cost more than my car). What are the limits to how large a plasma screen could be manufactured?
    • Plasma TVs put out a lot more heat than LCDs. In electronics, heat means wasted energy. LCDs are the most efficient way of producing light we have found.

      • Plasma TVs put out a lot more heat than LCDs

        Well yeah, that's why we need to harness that plasma flare! ;-)

        Seriously, there's no doubt, that plasma TV used as much electricity as a refrigerator, and really heated up the room, but it did have a beautiful, brilliant picture, with the ability to produce deep black that LCDs just can't.

        LCDs are the most efficient way of producing light we have found

        LCD doesn't produce any light at all. A separate light source is required, usually a fluorescent or LED back light. That leads to confusion, when TV manufacturers call their TVs "LED" TVs, they are still LCD, they just use

        • You are correct, I confused LCD with LED. But the selling point of the new OLED TVs is that they produce true black, so they may be better than plasma.

  • The Carrington Event (Score:3)

    by ebrandsberg ( 75344 ) on Friday January 06, 2023 @09:34AM (#63184584)

    For those that aren't familiar with what a CME could do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event.

  • So this is like saying "Hey, someone shot at the target at a shooting range, away from you... BUT WHEN THEY TURN AROUND THEY'LL STILL BE HOLDING A GUN!"
  • Oh great - sunfarts. The planet Mercury passed out from the smell.
  • A giant ball of plasma bursts from the sun, narrowly avoided hitting the Earth, and a huge, booming voice in the sky was heard saying... DAMN! Missed!"
  • Why is there a Sun Microsystems logo on this article?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Briareos ( 21163 )

      Imagine the "giant cloud of magnetized plasma" as a gigantic cup of Java(TM), and you have your answer - maybe(?)...

      Or the editors are on crack again.

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