UT: Monster Prominence Erupts from Sun

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21577
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

UT: Monster Prominence Erupts from Sun

Post by bystander » Tue Jun 07, 2011 2:20 pm

Monster Prominence Erupts from Sun
Universe Today | Nancy Atkinson | 2011 Jun 07
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Early this morning (June 7, 2011) an amazingly massive and spectacular event took place on the Sun; a huge prominence eruption, marked by a solar flare and release of energetic particles. Daniel Pendick from the Geeked on Goddard blog described it as a “fountain of plasma that blasts out of the solar surface, spreads outward, and collapses to splat back down.”

“I’ve never seen material released like this before, such a huge amount that falls back down in such a spectacular way,” says Dr. C. Alex Young in the video. “It looks like someone just kicked a giante clod of dirt into the air and it fell back down.” Young added that this event will probably not cause any problems as far as space weather affecting Earth.

This video is courtesy NASA Goddard’s Helioviewer.org with narration by folks from The Sun Today.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

User avatar
Beyond
500 Gigaderps
Posts: 6889
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:09 am
Location: BEYONDER LAND

Re: UT: Monster Prominence Erupts from Sun

Post by Beyond » Tue Jun 07, 2011 8:31 pm

AMAZING!!
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21577
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Re: UT: Monster Prominence Erupts from Sun

Post by bystander » Wed Jun 08, 2011 3:20 pm

More Eye-Popping Video from the June 7 Solar Explosion
Universe Today | Nancy Atkinson | 2011 Jun 08
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Here’s more video from the huge explosion on the Sun on June 7, 2011, which began at about 06:41 UTC. Not only was this event one of the most spectacular ever recorded, but also one of the best observed, with complementary data from several spacecraft and different vantage points. This video shows data from three different space observatories. The Solar Dynamics Observatory’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly recorded the amazing event in stunning detail in different wavelengths. Additionally, the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory’s (SOHO) LASCO coronagraph and STEREO’s (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) SECCHI instrument suite observed the prominence and associated CME as they traveled out into the heliosphere. Using LASCO and SECCHI data, the speed of the leading edge of the CME was estimated to be in the range 1200 – 1600 km/s. Model calculations predict that Earth will receive a glancing blow of the CME on June 10, possibly sparking some nice aurorae at high latitudes, according to the SDO team.
  • The citizen science project Solar Storm Watch predicts a solar storm to reach Earth at 08:00 UTC on June 10, 2011 with a glancing blow 35 degrees behind Earth, with a second storm expected at 19:00 UTC on June 10, 2011, with another glancing blow 32 degrees behind Earth.

    The event originated from the almost spotless active region 11226 and was associated with a moderate M2-class X-ray flare. The CME and associated shock wave produced and S1-class radiation storm, which shows up as speckles in the LASCO movies.

    The size of the prominence is thought to be at least 75 times the size of Earth. Our Jason Major created a graphic showing the size comparison. Earth is the little teeny tiny blue circle in the top left corner:
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Post Reply