Posted 04.17.2012 at 11:45 am
7 Comments
The Solar Eruption of April 16, 2012
NASA/SDO/AIA
Yesterday--at least in the northeast U.S.--was a picture-perfect, sun-shiney day. But as many of us took a few extra minutes at lunch to soak up one of the first nice spring days of the season, the sun overhead was in the midst of some serious violence. At roughly 1:45 p.m. EDT yesterday, a huge and beautiful eruption took place on the east limb of our local star, sending a massive prominence looping out into space.
The explosion unleashed a rather large coronal mass ejection (CME), those sometimes-menaces that threaten satellites, astronauts and terrestrial electronics, though the CME was not pointed toward earth. So instead of a space weather warning, we get this: beautiful imagery and footage of this M1 class (that’s like a medium) solar flare and prominence captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. While it was quite pleasant here on the Earth yesterday, click play below to see just how crazy things were getting on the surface of the sun.
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It looks like after the blast the gasses get sucked back at incredible speed, as if its more than just gravity pulling at it. Is there a vacuum effect or something, like in an explosion on earth?
I don't know but I'm guessing that rather than a vacuum effect, we are seeing a magnetic effect.
It is an amazing thing to watch even from a distance. Someday people will be able to "walk" on the Sun with a very powerful shield, and see it up close!
@Far Out Man, @killerT
I'm thinking it was a combination of magnetic fields and gravity. The sun has a lot of both. Also, this film was probably speed up quite a bit, so that probably has something to do with it as well.
-Spouting a fountain of nonsense since 1995-
HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY BUT MY WORDS SHALL NOT PASS AWAY..... MATTHEW 24:35 MARK 13:31 AND LUKE 21:33 (IDENTICLE ) WITNESSES..... WOE!!!!
Praise be to Ra!!!
That video of the solar flare is awesome!
All I see is HOT HOT HOT HOT very HOT and well more HOT HOT......!
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!
Surely this is a sign from the great god Zeus... = )
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Carl Sagan