BIG solar flare

[Russ]

Based on what they say here http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/science/space_weather there was a HUGE solar flare. Looks real neat in the pics. I didn't notice any BA in any of the articles but wasn't really looking either.

Anybody have any more/better information?

[RalphVanDyke]

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[beskeptical]

Try http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov
Then go to the best of soho, then to latests picks.

Pretty spectacular.

[Russ]

Thanks for the links. Good info!

[Gobukan]

I heard about this on the Art Bell show and was waiting for it to show up here (for the truth). Naturally he had his own spin on it but a question was raised that might be interesting. Satellites and such have apparently been knocked around by solar flares in the past. Is this a concern should there ever be a manned mission to Mars? The scientist Art was talking to (I've forgotten his name and Art's website seems to be down) seems to think that the ship will have to have a "bunker" onboard in the event things get rough. Someplace for the travellers to hide out that will protect them from the dangerous rays.
Also, did this flare have any affect on Earth? Or is it too soon to tell?

j.bone

[Hale_Bopp]

Everything I have read about missions to Mars are concerned about getting caught in a solar storm. A totally shielded ship would be way too massive, so the bunker idea is popular.

Fortunately, they would have time to take cover, given the warning of SOHO.

This particular flare is not heading toward us, alas...I wanted aurora [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Rob

[John Kierein]

Was that a flare? I don't think so. Looks like a prominence to me. There was only a small M class flare; not so unusual as flares go.

[Espritch]

Well, someones got to ask the dumb questions so I guess it might as well be me. What's difference between a solar flare and a solar prominence (I thought they were the same thing)?

[John Kierein]

A prominence is an ejection of lots of glowing mass that usually falls back on the sun or is attached. If it escapes from the sun then it is a coronal mass ejection. A flare is a sudden brightening of a spot on the sun that is generally x-rays and other photons. (Not mass like a prominence) Today there was a big class X-1 flare!
Follow links from here. http://www.maj.com/sun/noaa.html

[Russ]

On 2002-07-02 17:16, Gobukan wrote:
Also, did this flare have any affect on Earth? Or is it too soon to tell?
j.bone

It had/will have no effect on Earth. As you might be able to tell from the pic, it's not pointed our direction. You can tell because it looks like a prominance, so we have to be looking at it from edge-on. Further, as mentioned by others above, it is not a mass ejection so even if it were pointed at where Earth would be when all the junque got to our orbit radius, there would be little impact.

Of courese with Art Bell involved I'm sure he'll be calling for congressional hearings about the UFO's that caused this to happen. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]