When The Sun Unleashed Its Recent Plasma Blast, Earth Got Lucky

we would all die. we depend almost entirely on electronics everyday. take that away from the equation and we are goners.

Well said, if I lost my GPS I could not even find the nearest starbuck ROFL.

@ kilhoy616
or pay for your coffee

@JediMindSet: No, we wouldn't all die. Many people would die, but not because they are deprived of electricity, but because they depend on it to keep them alive (Such as respirators and feeding tubes for hospital patients). The rest of the population would be in a slump, but we would all be perfectly fine without electricity. ▲Bruno▲

A common error... but one that should not be made by a 'science' publication; solar flares are x-ray bursts from the sun and an M class flare is not even a record for the month - much less the largest in 4 years. We have had a few X class flares in 2011 already and the scale goes A < B < C < M < X with the first 4 having 10 ranks each and X going from 1 to 20.

OMG! I could'nt find my own house without my GPS - and please let's not think about a world with out the internet!!!!

@ToynB, I think you and the author are taking the route of over simplification here. Solar flares are not just charged particles, nor are they just X-rays, A quick jump over to NASA's website and I was able to find this:

"A flare is defined as a sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. Radiation is emitted across virtually the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves at the long wavelength end, through optical emission to x-rays and gamma rays at the short wavelength end."

So neither of you are actually "wrong" about what flares are, just not complete in your statements.

I think where the article is misleading is that yes, there have been other ejections recently many times the size of this one.. but the catch is the direction in which the ejection takes place. This is the largest ejection *in earths' direction* in the past few years.

Also, this website http://www.spaceweather.com/ is great for current information.

Playing Devil's Advocate since 1978

"The only constant in the universe is change"
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 BC - 475 BC

I would say earth get very lucky every times this happens and the luck comes from the strong gravitational and magnetic field of the sun. Without the strong gravitational and magnetic field of the sun it could be pretty devastating for any planet if a smaller star exploded like that. It takes a velocity of 617.7 km/s or 1,369,000 mph to escape the suns gravitational field. Plasma and ionized gas can get accelerated, like a particle accelerator accelerates particles, by the suns magnetic field along its flux-lines. Also gas heated at such high temperature is already moving at a very high rate of speed.

By looking at the video I would guess that the mass ejected by this solar flare probably equaled several earths mass, I also would guess that should be more than enough of a hiccup to cause some miniscule difference in the suns rotation and its location in our galaxies galactic plane.

Remember what the miniscule force of Japanese earthquake compared to the solar flare did to the earth's rotation and to the shift in its axis.

Here is what NASA said about the Japanese earthquake:

"Using a United States Geological Survey estimate for how the fault responsible for the earthquake slipped, research scientist Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., applied a complex model to perform a preliminary theoretical calculation of how the Japan earthquake—the fifth largest since 1900—affected Earth's rotation. His calculations indicate that by changing the distribution of Earth's mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

The calculations also show the Japan quake should have shifted the position of Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by about 17 centimeters (6.5 inches), towards 133 degrees east longitude. Earth's figure axis should not be confused with its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet). This shift in Earth's figure axis will cause Earth to wobble a bit differently as it rotates, but it will not cause a shift of Earth's axis in space—only external forces such as the gravitational attraction of the sun, moon and planets can do that."

www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/japanquake/earth20110314.html

I just finished reading a truly scary article on this subject at the New Scientist website.Google: "Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe" .The National Academy of Science is very concerned that we have not even begun to talk about protective measures we could take to prevent the developed world from being thrown back to the dark ages in seconds,and not recovering for up to 10 years.

@AtomicFedora: If all electronics were to be instantly wiped out by the sun, we would almost all certainly be in peril. Think about it. How much do we depend on electricity? Our nations security is fundamentally based around power and electricity. If the power 'goes out' on earth, how are you going to use your cell phone to call for help when someone is trying to break into your house? How is the U.S. going to communicate with any of it's citizens? We would most definitely be screwed.

@CodeZero: Even though you 'copied' it from NASA, extremely well put. The angle of the ejection is as important as the mass of the ejection.

@rlb2: Actually, we have our own magnetic field to thank for protection when a solar flare is ejected towards earth. The particles being ejected through the corona have such a high velocity that the gravity of the sun becomes negligent in comparison to the relativistic velocity of the particles. Our magnetic field actually deflects all of the charged particles to the poles of the earth, giving us the Northern and Southern lights. The strength of our magnetic field is based on the core of the earth, which is a fluid dynamo ( a mechanism which converts mechanical energy into electricity ). The faster the liquid core 'stirs', the stronger the magnetic field is. Sometimes this core slows down in comparison to it's average velocity, which causes the magnetic field to be weaker for a short period in time. If fate wanted to give us a swift kick, slow down the core of the earth and eject a large quantity of charged particles towards the earth; we would all boil from radiation.

@Newbeak5: Aside from some sort of contingency plan in the chance of a worst case scenario, no present method is capable of defending us from coronal mass ejections (or solar flares). These charged particles move so quickly after being ejected that we would have virtually no time to react and defend ourselves. I don't have an exact figure, but we're talking about MAYBE 10-15 minutes. All you would have time to do is go as far underground as you can and hope for the best!

Needless to say, we got pretty damn lucky!

In the 19th century, a solar storm of a magnitude that normally happens about every 150 years (we are due) caused telegraph wires across the US to literally catch on fire. Everyone has mentioned the grave danger from the loss of the grid that would happen with the next such storm, of which the earth's magnetic field is not strong enough to shield us. But the one thing I have not read is the danger to all the nuclear plants. Are the backup generators that would be needed to run the cooling pumps to prevent meltdown sufficiently shielded to be operative? And is there enough fuel to run well-shielded generators for the many, many months that would be needed to restore the electrical grid? If not, then the disaster would be of cataclysmic proportions, because we would have a thousand Fukushimas around the world including some hundreds in this country. It would be Armageddon for the human race, as bad as the fallout after a thermonuclear war. I have read nothing by anyone that addresses this. I hope the answer to the two questions about the shielding of generators and the amount of fuel to run them at the nuclear plants around the world make this a non-issue, but I would certainly like to know, and it is in the interests of the survival of the human race to get those questions answered quickly.

(CME)Pattern cycles every 11 years, pole reversal complete 2012
Magnetic currents make field wrap around sun too many times
Solar flares arise from Sun spots and explosively release huge
Bombs of electromagnetic energy accelerating away from Sun

Solar wind, positive ions, a main constituent of what's en route
Crossing domains, a reader's experience completing the picture
A pattern in a time spiral of technology calculated end on date
End point of Novelty Theory and Singularity is 2012 -- back up

(...)End-game predictions link all areas of science, a cast is gloomy
Tenet of ecology, Mayan astrological observations are obsolete
Predictable outcomes arise from media coverage, or Hollywood
So the power and communication goes out -- nothing's forever.

In the presence of a genetic bo mb , humans will drop dead from poison.

my 2012 interpretation

I do find it interesting that we have so many variables that could essentially be affecting "Climate Change" for lack of a better term. For scientists to get a clear understanding of the affects of human activity on the planet they would have to isolate those activities from the other variables. Seems to me that it would be difficult to isolate any one of the many variables that could be involved - volcanic, solar, wind, meteor activity not to mention internal radiation.

I think as a society we have to assume that any pollutants has the potential to cause any number of harmful factors & need to do what is reasonable to reduce these. But as another commentary stated, the earth does seem to heal in some ways, maybe with a factor that has not been discovered. Is that not what makes science so interesting - the new discoveries that take place daily. But with each new discovery comes new dynamic questions for others to ponder & study.

Green House gasses I can't imagine can be good but we do know that trees, brush, grass & other foliage take care of much of this naturally. Maybe the sun helps in some way also. With less activity, maybe the earth is not going to have to work as hard to reduce some of this & as humans we will be given a unique opportunity by giving the earth a helping hand & getting ahead of the game!

"Green House gasses I can't imagine can be good but we do know that trees, brush, grass & other foliage take care of much of this naturally. Maybe the sun helps in some way also. With less activity, maybe the earth is not going to have to work as hard to reduce some of this & as humans we will be given a unique opportunity by giving the earth a helping hand & getting ahead of the game!"

huh? getting ahead of what game? of creating more green house gasses? that since we can't prove the main culprit for climate change, we should completely absolve humanity from the carbon footprint it leaves on this planet?

is this what you are implying?

THE NUCLEAR THREAT SOLAR EMISSIONS CAN UNLEASH IS A NIGHTMARE!

See the Aesop Institute website for a couple of maps worth 1,000 words.

NASA estimates power could go out for months in much of the nation.

After a month without power a nuclear plant poses a meltdown peril and can spew radioactivity into surrounding communities.

Mobilizing to minimize the potential damage from our 104 plants can trigger a strong boost to the economy.

And cheap green power is being born that can begin to supersede fossil and radioactive fuels.

See more about that on the same Aesop Institute website.

At the recent International Remote Viewing Conference (IRVA 2011) the assembled alumni of the DOD remote viewing program (STARGATE, GRILL FLAME, etc.) were asked straight out for the public record as to what is coming. The presenter at the podium waffled. Later during the conference Stephen Schwartz stepped up and publically lectured for 20 minutes on what he and others have seen in-bound for 2013 solar maximum. Bottom line: Solar flare events that are as powerful or greater than the 1859 Carrington super flare event. Schwartz graciously explained that such events would likely damage the power grid that folks take for granted and interupt the flow of goods and services (e.g. FOOD, WATER, etc.). He also pointed out that some of the leaders and military of this world with access to heavy weapons (e.g. nuclear tipped ICBMs) or wannabees (Despots with ambitions) who are sociopaths or borderline personality disorders will likely be negatively effected by the geomagnetic storms that will create similar changes in behavior in migratory species. In short; war and conflict may errupt if the leadership of certain nation states do not resolve to police themselves when the sun goes crazy. Not to mention rioting populations who suddenly find their supermarket shelves empty...

Begs the biggest question of all; This is probably known by governments around the world, so who is preparing. Who needs a global Katrina (New Orleans debacle).

David F Pawlowski
Michigan USA