Starship Asterisk*

Four X class Flares

Explanation: Swinging around the Sun's eastern limb on Monday, a group of sunspots labeled active region AR1748 has produced the first four X-class solar flares of 2013 in less than 48 hours. In time sequence clockwise from the top left, flashes from the four were captured in extreme ultraviolet images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Ranked according to their peak brightness in X-rays, X-class flares are the most powerful class and are frequently accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), massive clouds of high energy plasma launched into space. But CMEs from the first three flares were not Earth-directed, while one associated with the fourth flare may deliver a glancing blow to the Earth's magnetic field on May 18. Also causing temporary radio blackouts, AR1748 is likely not finished. Still forecast to have a significant chance of producing strong flares, the active region is rotating into more direct view across the Sun's nearside.

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I am in complete amazement and certainly in awe that this can go on for about 10 billion years and if I can get 10 years out of my truck, I am happy.

Duck and Cover....its swinging around for another shot!

The Sun is certainly energetic now...

:---[===] *

I know they are a bit scary - but they are SO beautiful!

I've only recently re-watched Robert Nemiroff's lectures about the Sun - really good! I recommend them to other newbies.

Margarita

ta152h0 wrote:I am in complete amazement and certainly in awe that this can go on for about 10 billion years and if I can get 10 years out of my truck, I am happy.

That's because there's about a 10 Billion size difference between the sun and your truck.

The link from the image http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1305/74 ... nd2fix.jpg is 404 at the moment.

There's a 2048x1152 version at http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/7488 ... nd2fix.jpg

the sun has a gun that Can Miss Earth
the flare with a glare that Can Mute Electric

Ele6 wrote:The link from the image http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1305/74 ... nd2fix.jpg is 404 at the moment.

There's a 2048x1152 version at http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/7488 ... nd2fix.jpg

Thanks very much for reporting this! The editor has been notified.

Ele6 wrote:The link from the image http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1305/74 ... nd2fix.jpg is 404 at the moment.

Fixed. Apologies. - RJN

APOD Robot wrote: Swinging around the Sun's eastern limb on Monday, ...

I always get confused when I read "east" and "west" referring to the surfaces of solar system bodies. Objects on the surface of the Sun rotate from east to west in Earth's sky, but if we were wearing asbestos underwear and floating next to a sunspot on the surface of the Sun's photosphere, we would be moving from west to east.

The same with the Moon. Mare Crisium is on the western edge of the Moon's visible face in Earth's sky, but if we were astronauts at the Apollo 11 landing site in Mare Tranquilitatis, Mare Crisium would be toward the east on the surface of the Moon. The Sun rises on Mare Crisium before it rises on Mare Tranquilitatis, just as it rises on New York before rising on San Francisco.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot rotates from east to west in Earth's sky, but from west to east on the surface of Jupiter's cloud tops.

The terms "preceding" (west in Earth's sky, east on the surface of a solar system body) and "following" (east in Earth's sky, west on the surface of a solar system body) seem to have fallen out of favor, but they are clearer than using east and west. In this case, we would say that this sunspot is rotating around the Sun's following limb.

Whenever there are pictures put up with false color, such as with infrared, radio frequencies, UV, X-ray or Gamma Rays, I wish there were a color key, such as Purple maps to keV above X, Blue maps to keV above Y but below X, etc.

Craig Willford wrote:Whenever there are pictures put up with false color, such as with infrared, radio frequencies, UV, X-ray or Gamma Rays, I wish there were a color key, such as Purple maps to keV above X, Blue maps to keV above Y but below X, etc.

SDO color key: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/