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io9Watch a giant solar flare erupt out of the sun!
Nope, that’s not lens flare you’re seeing. That’s a solar flare — an insanely large, extremely bright solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the footage of the strongest flare we’ve seen yet this year last night. According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, the flare was strong enough to temporarily send them into a … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9NASA’s IRIS Spots its Biggest Solar Flare Yet
Late last month, NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (aka IRIS) witnessed the strongest solar flare it’s glimpsed since its launch last year. IRIS spacecraft was deployed last June to observe the little-explored lower layers of the Sun’s multi-level atmosphere in unprecedented detail. Since then, it’s turned up never before-seen-images of the Sun’s chromosphere, the so-called … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Tonight’s Your Best Chance to See Northern Lights In Years
Millions of charged particles are rushing toward earth after a gigantic solar flare on Tuesday. Bad news for NASA’s latest mission, but good news for sky-watchers: Those charged particles also collide with the earth’s atmosphere to produce the ethereal-looking northern lights. Normally, northern lights, or auroras, are only visible at or near the pole, to … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
io9
Our Sun Emits One of the Most Violent Solar Flares This Year
Yesterday morning, the sun unleashed a powerful X1 solar flare. X-flares are the most powerful classification of solar eruption there is. This is the latest in a string of recent outbursts, with yesterday’s eruption among the most violent we’ve seen all year. Above: An X1-class flare erupts from the right side of the sun, emerging … Continued
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io9
2013’s solar maximum could be weakest since the dawn of the space age
So this is unexpected. The Sun is currently at the peak of its 11-year solar cycle. It should be awash with sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections and the like. And yet, observations indicate our parent star has actually been pretty quiet this year – so quiet, in fact, this year’s solar max could go … Continued
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io9
A breathtaking image of this year’s strongest solar flare so far
On April 11, 2013, at 3:16 a.m. EDT, the sun emitted an M6.5 flare, allowing NASA to capture this vibrant image. It’s not a particularly powerful solar flare, but it is the strongest of 2013 so far, and we’ll have plenty more opportunities to observe solar activity this year. The sun is expected to reach … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
io9Watch four hours of Aurora Borealis compressed into three stunning minutes
Photographer Göran Strand used 2464 raw images taken with his all-sky camera to create this gorgeous time-lapse video. The swirling crystal ball images show the view from Östersund, Sweden, when a when a Coronal Mass Ejection hit Earth’s magnetic field. Sunspot AR1692 produced a M1-class solar flare and on March 17th, the resulting CME hit … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
io9Watch this stunning solar eruption create loops of fiery rain on the Sun’s surface
This is incredible. NASA has just released a never-before-seen video of a solar eruption from July of last year that shows a solar flare, a coronal mass ejection, and loops of solar rain all occurring in one breathtaking sequence. The eruption started on July 19, 2012, when a moderately powerful solar flare burst from a … Continued
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io9
This is what a solar flare sounds like here on Earth
The Sun is nearing the pinnacle of its 11-year cycle of solar activity, which means things have been pretty wild on the surface of our resident star. As the cycle approaches peak activity (scheduled to climax this year), solar flares like the double eruption observed just this morning are expected to increase in both frequency … Continued
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io9
Can humans journey into deep space without cosmic radiation frying our brains?
Beyond a few brief trips to the Moon over four decades ago, humanity has never ventured outside of Earth’s protective magnetic field. And while it’s natural to dream of exploring the stars, such voyages may carry impossibly high medical risks. That’s the finding of researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who have undertaken … Continued
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io9This is the most spectacular solar flare we’ve seen in ages
Earlier this afternoon, magnetic fields on the Sun’s northeastern limb exploded in an arcing jet of roiling plasma, producing what is hands down one of the most spectacular solar explosions we’ve seen in years. Featured here are two videos of the blast, captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory when the explosion occurred around 17:45 UT … Continued
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io9
A massive solar eruption may lead to the strongest radiation storm in seven years
Last week, a swelling solar storm on the surface of the Sun sent a stream of charged particles hurtling toward Earth, making for beautiful northern lights in the planet’s extreme latitudes. But late last night, at 10:59 p.m. EST, the now massive tempest unleashed an eruption that scientists expect will be responsible for Earth’s largest … Continued
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io9
Massive new sunspot is three times as wide as the Earth
It might not look like much relative to the rest of the sun’s surface, but the sunspot pictured up top (dubbed AR1339 by the folks at NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory) is positively massive — the biggest astronomers have observed in years. According to SpaceWeather.com, AR1339 is about 50,000 miles long and 25,000 miles wide. As … Continued
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io9
Solar storm throws up plasma bursts bigger than our entire planet
No, Earth hasn’t suddenly migrated next to the Sun, but everything else about this picture is awesomely real. This is a plasma eruption from sunspot group AR 1302, the most recent solar storm to wreak havoc on Earth’s magnetic field. Thankfully, said havoc has pretty much been limited to some especially spectacular auroras. But there’s … Continued
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io9This massive solar flare will make for dazzling northern lights
Things are getting pretty wild on the surface of the Sun. Our resident star is nearing the pinnacle of its 11-year cycle of solar activity, which is scheduled to climax in 2013. As it approaches peak activity, energetic flares — like the one pictured here — are expected to increase in both frequency and intensity. … Continued
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Tech NewsSpectacular Coronal Mass Ejection Hitting Earth Tonight at 3.1 Million Miles Per Hour
Put on your tinfoil hats, because the Sun just had an indigestion. According to NASA, this “spectacular coronal mass ejection should deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field during the late hours of June 8th or June 9th.” The CME was accompanied by a medium-sized solar flare and a minor radiation storm. The event … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9
How worried should we be about solar storms?
The Sun is entering a period of seriously intense solar activity, releasing huge volleys of charged particles and plasma blobs into space, including the recent Valentine’s Day X-class flare, the most extreme in years. So how much of a threat do these flares really pose, and how prepared are we for a seriously disruptive solar … Continued
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io9
The Sun unleashes its biggest solar flare in years
Earlier this week, the Sun emitted its first X-class solar flare in about four years. The most powerful form of solar flare, this particular flare has lit up a massive region on the Sun’s southern hemisphere…and any of our readers in the far northern or southern latitudes will be treated to some particularly amazing auroras … Continued
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io9
We could be running out of time to send astronauts to Mars
America’s current plans for human space exploration seem horribly slow, considering we won’t leave Earth’s orbit until 2025 and won’t reach Mars until 2035. Worse than that, solar radiation spikes could keep us grounded for decades more. The Sun emits a steady stream of potentially deadly cosmic radiation. As long as humans remain within the … Continued
