Comments on: HUGE sunspots turning toward Earth

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:47:28 +0000

@23. reidh : Please see :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sf_UIQYc20&list=PL029130BFDC78FA33&index=62&feature=plpp_video

http://www.skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5hs4KVeiAU&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL7550BB4DE820C2C0

Please. Really. I’m asking nicely.
Plus ask yourself this basic question :

Do you honestly think that climatologists would overlook the influence of our Sun and fail to take solar insolation into account when studying Global Overheating? Honestly???

Just how dumb do you think they all are?

Did you know our Sun has only just come out of one of the lowest & most prolonged minima on record – but global average temperatures (as confirmed by numerous multiple studies and numerous multiple data sets incl. now Muller’s BEST one) have still risen and 2010 was the hottest year on record?

By: dave

dave — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:54:35 +0000

Those are wonderful pictures of a massive sunspot group. I’ve taken many sunspot pictures but none approach the detail I see here.

By: reidh

reidh — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:59:49 +0000

Quote: “On November 3rd they popped off a pretty big X 1.9 class flare”
None of which could possibly contribute to a rise in the overall temperature at the earth’s surface! its the cows man, don’t blame the Sun. Its our friend.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:42:26 +0000

@19 Gary Ansorge: I wonder if intelligent beings on such a planet with frequent large solar storms could use inductive current as a source of power? And it’s possible that they simply wouldn’t develop large, distributed power grids, but generate power relatively locally.

@21 WJM: Pretty cool, eh? I remember the first time I did that. I had a tiny old 2″ refractor, more of a “ship’s spyglass,” really, and I duct-taped it to a camera tripod and used it to project an image of a solar eclipse on the fence behind my house. It was like 3 feet across! Completely blew my freakin’ mind. Interestingly, the part that really grabbed my attention wasn’t the eclipse, but the sunspots I could see…
That’s the cool thing about the sun, it’s not exactly tough to capture light from it*

*It goes without saying that no one should ever, ever look through a telescope pointed at the sun, even with filters, unless you have purpose-made filters and you really know exactly what you’re doing. I’m sure everyone here knows that, but it doesn’t hurt to say it yet again

By: WJM

WJM — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:31:02 +0000

I just projected the sun onto a sheet of white paper, through the little bird-spotting scope I bought at a garage sale this summer.

HOLY GWONGA BONGA BAZONGA-DONGA.

It makes you feel like part of the solar system to be able to “see” this right on your living room floor here on Earth.

By: alfaniner

alfaniner — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:40:04 +0000

Wouldn’t it be cool if this thing swung around and zapped that approaching asteroid with a CME? I might have to give some more thought to how the Universe works if that happened.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:19:08 +0000

,,,and just think, red dwarf stars are much more active than this. I wonder how a civilization could even develop on a planet of such a star, with inductive overloads occurring at random in your telegraph systems. Ok, eventually “they” might figure out how to harden their systems but the expense might well make such systems impractical.

,,and the Pony Express remains the only viable rapid info transmission system,,,

,,,ok, maybe I WILL write such a story,,,but first, more coffee,,,

Gary 7

By: hhEb09'1

hhEb09'1 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:40:11 +0000

The STEREO satellites cover the full surface of the sun, no? The wiki page says they will, until a short time in 2015.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEREO

By: Stathis Dimopoulos

Stathis Dimopoulos — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:30:18 +0000

Perhaps it’s a good time for the scientific community to consider a 360 deg monitoring of the Sun. Three or possibly 4 satellites will do the trick. These should be orbiting Sun of course. The project is easily “sellable” to international telecoms & energy production companies ( to finance it ) . Can you imagine the effect of CME like the one from 1859 hitting us today ? Its like EMP weapons exploding outside earth’s atmosphere. All civilian satellites will be either destroyed or will enter “safe mode” .A great amount of today’s electronics will be “fried”. The rest that will survive , unless rad-hardened, will produce a big amount of errors. Most PC’s will be unable to work, almost all forms of wireless transmissions will be affected. To give you an example of the intensity of the 1859 event , telegraph paper was set on fire by the sparks of the inductive currents produced by the storm , and the current was high enough to allow telegraph to operate without external power. Last but not least think the effect on the ISS and other orbiting manned space vehicles .

By: Peter B

Peter B — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:31:22 +0000

Gordon Knott @ #13 said: “The radiation physics fallacy of a manned mission to Mars…”

What would be fallacious about it?

“…is set to be eloquently professed by ISS FUBAR asstronaughts.”

Could you expand on that statement please?

“Do you like your brave space voyagers served medium or well-done? Radiation cataracts are the NASA-admitted default for all of them even during a quiet sun.”

Are you saying there’s no possible protection against this radiation? Are you saying all astronauts have experienced cataracts?

By: alfaniner

alfaniner — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:34:27 +0000

As much as I know about astronomy (which is a fair amount), I guess I never knew that the Sun takes about a month to rotate.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:42:40 +0000

@#8 Richard Drumm the Astronomy Bum: Well, teh Wiki says 3500 to 4500 degrees kelvin, so that’s a pretty significant temperature difference. Of course, as always with Wikipedia, veracity may vary, use at your own risk

I actually just wanted to say that that event sounds (and looks, from those images) absolutely awesome!! Even though it sounds like it was mostly for the younger astronomers-to-be, if I lived out there I’d totally have been there!

By: Gordon Knott

Gordon Knott — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:33:47 +0000

The radiation physics fallacy of a manned mission to Mars is set to be eloquently professed by ISS FUBAR asstronaughts. Do you like your brave space voyagers served medium or well-done? Radiation cataracts are the NASA-admitted default for all of them even during a quiet sun.

Sunspot AR1339 popped five M-class solar flares in the past 24 hours. Its delta-class magnetic field harbors energy for fat X-class flares and massive coronal ejections aimed dead square at Earth for the coming week. “You will know pain, and you will know fear, and then you will die. Have a nice trip.”

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2005%20YU55&orb=1
2005 YU55

By: Jonathan Crowe

Jonathan Crowe — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:57:34 +0000

I took some photos with my own modest equipment; the results are here and here (which is a closeup of the previous photo).

By: Crux Australis

Crux Australis — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:00:06 +0000

Lupine: about 13 minutes.

By: andy

andy — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:12:56 +0000

….it’s the end of the world…..21/12/12

By: Boingo

Boingo — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:57:13 +0000

I’m sure hoping for a coronal mass ejection. I missed those arorae a couple of weeks ago and I am looking for some action.

BTW: does anyone know where I can find some good information on the path of that asteroid on Tuesday? I only have a 3″ telescope at my disposal and I need to know exactly where it is going to be able to find it. That is assuming it can even be seen by a 3″ telescope. Something that shows its track across a star map like Heavens Above gives for the ISS would be perfect.

By: Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum

Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:56:08 +0000

Phil:
Here’s a question I got yesterday at the NRAO Open House. What is the temperature of a sunspot? I told this guy that the photosphere is 10,800°F and I told him that the sunspot was cooler & thus darker than the surrounding area but I had no answer at hand as to just how much cooler it was.

Thanks!

I must have gone through my standard solar-astronomy-for-kids mantra 200 times:
“Now don’t go home and take just any old telescope or binoculars you have there and look at the Sun! You’ll cook you eyeballs. Then your Mom will put ketchup on them & give them to you for supper! Maybe a little salt & pepper… They’ll be delicious, but you’ll be blind and, oh yeah, it’ll hurt! A lot! These are special telescopes that are specifically made for looking at the Sun, so you won’t cook your eyes. Besides that, I didn’t bring any ketchup today, so your eyes are safe.”

Always makes them smile.
I was hamming it up with my white coat & Einstein wig:
http://t.co/j3n6GP3C

By: Lascas

Lascas — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:48:18 +0000

its the end of the world!!!!

By: HUGE sunspots turning toward Earth | My Blog

HUGE sunspots turning toward Earth | My Blog — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:46:33 +0000

[...] SDO, solar flare, sunspots by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Cool stuff, Pretty pictures | 5 comments | RSS feed | [...]

By: Lupine

Lupine — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:35:09 +0000

Wonder how long it is before someone says it’s the end of the world.

By: Bette Noir

Bette Noir — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:30:25 +0000

Yeah, yeah. Rainy season here in the Northwest: if there is auroral activity, I’ll never see it.

By: Christina Viering

Christina Viering — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:12:27 +0000

Amazing pics!

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:44:35 +0000

I’m at about 32 degrees north(Georgia, USA). Could a CME produce observable aurora this far south? Haven’t seen such since the IGY in 1957, when I was living in the mountains in the middle of Nevada.

Southern living misses so much,,,

Gary 7

By: Andrew Cooper

Andrew Cooper — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:43:44 +0000

Made a point to stop by the Mauna Kea VIS and take a look through the solar rig we keep there. The best sunspot complex I have seen in quite some time. If you have a chance, make the effort to take a look!