Comments on: Gorgeous flowing plasma fountain erupts from the Sun

By: CORONAL RAIN « As My World Turns

CORONAL RAIN « As My World Turns — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:32:15 +0000

[...] Gorgeous flowing plasma fountain erupts from the Sun | Bad Astronomy (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]

By: VIDEO: Cum arată o explozie solară – eStiri – portal de stiri

VIDEO: Cum arată o explozie solară – eStiri – portal de stiri — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:25:30 +0000

[...] Discover Magazine publică un filmuleţ din timpul unei erupţii solare, petrecută pe 25 septembrie 2011. [...]

By: Simply Amazing Solar Prominence Eruption! | Uses of Solar Power

Simply Amazing Solar Prominence Eruption! | Uses of Solar Power — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:02:59 +0000

[...] http://www.helioviewer.org Brought to you by The Sun Today.Duration : 0:3:19[youtube Q_3u_0NN7OM] http://www.thesuntoday.org – I woke up to this event, aptly described in an email from a colleague -…304, 171 and 211 Angstrom channel cameras on SDO. Also included is a video from the LASCO C2 [...]

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:55:26 +0000

@1. Jason : “Very cool and a reminder that our sun is a fairly active star.”

Yes indeed.

But not as active as some red dwarf flare stars as Kaler notes :

“Instead of being a local phenomena as it [flares - ed] is in the Sun, the magnetic fields and flares involve the whole star. Clearly life on an orbiting planet would be terrifying if not impossible. Imagine M [red] dwarf bathing on the beach and having your star suddenly – with no warning at all – become 10 times brighter.”

Source : pages 30-31, “The Faintest Stars” article by James Kaler in ‘Astronomy’ magazine, August 1991.

Honestly can you imagine what that’d be like for Earth – or imagine what something just twice or thrice as bright as our Sun would look like?

(Maybe I’m easily impressed but trying to picture that is something that always blows me away! )

As well as flare stars, there are Mira variables, Cepheids, long period iregular variables like Betelguese and so many other varieties that are far more extreme than our own relatively really constant – but very, very, slightly variable daytime star.

Incidentally, our Sun itself was more variable in the past when it went through it’s T-Tauri “nebular variable” stage and will be much more variable in the distant future when it evolves into a Mira type red giant.

By: Wzrd1

Wzrd1 — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:13:22 +0000

I’m trying to figure out the recapture of the gas. I was actually expecting it to form an arch and flow down the field line to the other pole, where the field line reconnected.
It NEARLY flowed to the reconnection point, but failed. Perhaps the reconnection at the dark line wasn’t fully established and still competing for the strongest field strength?
It’s looking like the field was broken by a tangle close to the surface where it wasn’t radiant, rather than the stereotypical mid “dome” disconnection, which might more correspond to a CME event.
As in same phenomena, but on a different scale (flare vs CME).

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:55:49 +0000

@1. Jason : Very cool and a reminder that our sun is a fairly active star.

Well, yes, although these things are very much relative.

Compared to this flaring neutron star :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLVubS7g3-o

Or the Red dwarf that Roared, EV Lacertae :

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/05/19/the-red-dwarf-that-roared/

Or Mira, the pulsating red giant or perhaps most dramatically of all the Luminous Blue Variable Eta Carinae which breifly became the second brightest in our skies before fading into unaided eye invisibility :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3agymlfFXYY&feature=related

(Click on my name for Kaler’s page on it) among others, our Sun is wa-aay out-classed.

Which as you note is a great news for us! 8)

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:45:23 +0000

Neat clip.

Looks almost like a living creature – a plasma whale living in the Sun and doing one of those whale aerial flips before diving back into its home!

(NOT saying this is a serious theory just imagined whimsy.)

By: Watch Close-Up As Millions of Tons of Gas Erupt on the Sun’s Surface | Wi-Fi Guy

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:44:38 +0000

[...] out NASA’s guild to flares to learn more about the classification system. [BadAstronomy] Categories: Solar Activity, Space Tags: m class, solar flare, [...]

By: Caleb

Caleb — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:36:53 +0000

@Chris

“Why would this video bring up an ad to watch the Rosie Show on OWN?”

Mass.

I kid… I kid.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:05:17 +0000

Sometimes I wonder how youtube does its advertising. Why would this video bring up an ad to watch the Rosie Show on OWN?