Comments on: October's solar blast, seen from the side

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:17:49 +0000

Based on the vague quantities given, I approximate the energy involved at 100 quadrillion kW-hr. (“a billion tons of matter was hurled away from the Sun at several million kilometers per hour” –> 10^12 kg at n*10^9 m/hr –> 10^12 kg at ~10^6 m/s –> .5*10^24 J –> 1.4*10^17 kW-hr)

By: Sats Del Sol

Sats Del Sol — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:02:54 +0000

[...] a few of these I had never heard of. Phil Plait describes the importance of understanding the Sun better than I [...]

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:55:18 +0000

For a size comparison of lower mass versus higher mass white dwarfs see :

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2011/09/what_makes_a_supernova_so_supe.php

which forms part of a great well illustrated explanationof supernovae. (Hope its okay netiquette~wise to link this here, BA. Apologies and please let me know if not.)

There’s also a good comparison of white dwarf size-mass varieties here :

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/erectus2/strobel/lives/evolutnb.htm

too.

Whilst this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po_oUbqa-I8

youtube clip on white dwarfs could be of interest too.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:35:12 +0000

@11. Kim asked : “Can you see some stars moving in the video?”

Yep, sure can – although I think the star that’s moving is actually the Daytime Star, our Sun. That’s why the background stars appear to shift as STEREO A is keeping the Sun centred.

@ 10. Nigel Depledge : Ah, okay. thanks.

@9. Nigel Depledge : Erm . . . did you instead mean “a Neptune-sized white dwarf is less massive than an Earth-sized white dwarf”?

D’oh! Exactly. I did indeed. Oops. (Facepalms self & blushes.)

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:48:39 +0000

Impressive!

Gary 7

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:45:03 +0000

Can you see some stars moving in the video?

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:06:12 +0000

MTU (7) said:

It looks like the solar disk (white circle) is a lot smaller than the occulting mask.

Wondering what the reasoning for that is & if they’d be able to learn more if the mask was smaller so it more precisely matched the size of the solar disk?

Diffraction.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:05:18 +0000

MTU (6) said:

Quixotically enough, the more massive a white dwarf is the smaller -but denser – it gets. So a Neptune mass white dwarf is a lot less massive than a sub-Earth mass example.

Erm . . . did you instead mean “a Neptune-sized white dwarf is less massive than an Earth-sized white dwarf”?

Neptune’s mass is roughly 17 times Earth’s mass (about 10^26 kg versus 5.9 x 10^24 kg).

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:59:34 +0000

The BA said:

They can also damage satellites in orbits or be a radiation danger to astronauts.

Hey, does this mean that the astronauts on the ISS are gonna come home with superpowers?

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:05:18 +0000

Good video here.

The Sun is blocked by a circular mask, so fainter things can be seen (its disk is represented by the white circle).

It looks like the solar disk (white circle) is a lot smaller than the occulting mask.

Wondering what the reasoning for that is & if they’d be able to learn more if the mask was smaller so it more precisely matched the size of the solar disk?