[NASA] 500,000 mile 'solar whip' that caused Beautiful aurora on Earth
31 replies, posted
[quote]Nasa today released a stunning video showing a 500,000 mile long 'solar whip' on the surface of the sun - and the beautiful aurora it created on earth.
Captured by from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the video shows in unprecedented detail a very long, whip-like solar filament extending over half a million miles in a long arc above the sun’s surface.
The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second.
The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow, causing aurora to appear on monday evening.
The 'whip' was a filament, cooler clouds of solar material that are tethered above the sun’s surface by unstable magnetic forces.
The images and video (below), which covers August 6 to 8, 2012 show the filament as a darker strand that has been in view for several days.
It the snaps, sending radiation hurtling towards earth.
At the time, Nasa revealed a video of the activity.
'Towards the end of the video part of the filament seems to break away, but its basic length and shape seem to have remained mostly intact,' says Nasa.
The video, which condenses three hours of activity, also reveals the action in dramatic detail in extreme ultraviolet light.
The NOAA spaceweather prediction center warned that a cloud of radiation from the eruption would reach Earth today.
The radiation cloud will create a minor to moderate geomagnetic storm, bringing the northern lights to parts of North America, it said.
To prove the point, Nasa today revealed the image below, showing the aurora in breathtaking beauty.
[img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/05/article-0-14D92FB7000005DC-850_964x641.jpg[/img]
Nasa says the image is a classic example of a solar prominence (also known as a filament when viewed against the solar disk).
This is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface.
Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona.
A prominence forms over timescales of about a day, and stable prominences may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space.
However, scientists are still researching how and why prominences are formed.
The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas comprised of electrically charged hydrogen and helium.
The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun’s internal dynamo.
An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.
[img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/05/article-0-14D88785000005DC-295_964x955.jpg[/img]
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Read more: [url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2199847/The-power-sun-Now-Nasa-reveals-VIDEO-500-000-mile-long-solar-whip-caused-aurora-earth.html#ixzz25nUvDNEX[/url]
Hot.
It's just incredible if you think about how the ejected mass must be somewhere around the mass of earth or even more!
Interesting to see that while the sun looks like a peaceful ball of light from earth, it's actually a violent and angry celestial entity :v:
[QUOTE][img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/05/article-0-14D887DA000005DC-909_964x601.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
That is probably one of the coolest images I have ever seen
I need these images in higher resolution
It's ironic how this huge, dangerous ball of gas creates such potentially destructive things as CMEs yet it is the same thing that would kill us all if it suddenly didn't exist.
[QUOTE][IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/03/article-0-14D17EF1000005DC-35_964x959.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
I feel so small now.
Auroras are beautiful yet a deadly reminder that the sun could kill us all with a single bad flare.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;37576943]I feel so small now.[/QUOTE]
Dude the Eye of Jupiter is big enough to fit multiple earths into it, although I can't remember if that storm still exists or if it finally died.
[IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/05/article-0-14D887DA000005DC-909_964x601.jpg[/IMG]
This would make an amazing wallpaper. Is there 1080p of it?
hehehehe
ejection.
I gotta agree, nasa please release the bigger pictures
Shit man that's kinda like a massive tentacle of fire, totally awesome.
I've seen enough anime to know where this is going
must be why I saw the northern lights for the first time in my life on monday
[QUOTE=TheGuru;37576811]I need these images in higher resolution[/QUOTE]
[url=http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011095/index.html]Take your pick.[/url]
That flare pic is goddamn stunning
[QUOTE=Splambob;37577878][url=http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011095/index.html]Take your pick.[/url]
That flare pic is goddamn stunning[/QUOTE]
Thank you.
Is this the CME that NASA predicted would hit this year? Or is that meant to come later?
[QUOTE=Jacknife;37578286]Is this the CME that NASA predicted would hit this year? Or is that meant to come later?[/QUOTE]
Dude, pretty sure that happened like a month ago.
[QUOTE=Pierrewithahat;37578291]Dude, pretty sure that happened like a month ago.[/QUOTE]
oh god
now i know i should get out more
[QUOTE=Jacknife;37578307]oh god
now i know i should get out more[/QUOTE]
To be honest there'll probably be a few more pretty big events, pretty sure this is a pretty active year in the solar cycle.
Couldn't that thing like, wipe us right off the surface of earth?
[QUOTE=Splambob;37577878][url=http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011095/index.html]Take your pick.[/url]
That flare pic is goddamn stunning[/QUOTE]
Awesome. The videos are really cool too.
[QUOTE=proch;37578484]Couldn't that thing like, wipe us right off the surface of earth?[/QUOTE]The magnetic fields prevent that from happening, unlike on mars where a flare like this would probably kill you.
[QUOTE=MILKE;37576686]That is probably one of the coolest images I have ever seen[/QUOTE]
That looks far from cool.
These pictures always shock me. Seriously, just look at this image.
[img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/05/article-0-14D887DA000005DC-909_964x601.jpg[/img]
just think about how long that tendril is. That's got to be a good couple hundred times longer than the circumference of the earth :/
[QUOTE=Instant Mix;37580364]These pictures always shock me. Seriously, just look at this image.
[img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/05/article-0-14D887DA000005DC-909_964x601.jpg[/img]
just think about how long that tendril is. That's got to be a good couple hundred times longer than the circumference of the earth :/[/QUOTE]
And people still seriously believe that the universe was made for us, it is by the stroke of luck that we aren't snuffed out every two seconds.
[QUOTE=Pierrewithahat;37577062]Dude the Eye of Jupiter is big enough to fit multiple earths into it, although I can't remember if that storm still exists or if it finally died.[/QUOTE]
still going I think
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