Solar explosions could impact Earth
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is keeping an eye on a set of solar storms and explosions that could disrupt satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment here on Earth in the next few days.
While activity had reportedly returned to somewhat normal levels when solar winds calmed Monday morning, another explosion Tuesday was three times larger than the February 15 flare, which, until now, was the most significant flare of this solar cycle.
Solar flare may disrupt your GPS
The real forecast worth taking a look at, however, is the one for 2013, when solar activity levels are expected to peak with the next "solar maximum" within the 11-year activity cycle. Electric and magnetic interference from solar storms blasting electrically charged particles into the Earth’s magnetic field can cause major interferences on earth. Already this year, there have been reports of lost high-frequency radio communication with aircraft near the Arctic, along flight paths where pilots depend on such communication for flight safety and guidance.
Pilots and commercial aircraft are not the only ones at risk, either. NOAA cautions that many systems humans use every day are vulnerable to changes in space weather, including GPS applications in mobile phones and in cars, power grids and military satellites.
“We now know how powerful space weather can be and how events that begin on the surface of the Sun can end up wreaking havoc here on Earth,” said Tom Bogdan, SWPC director in Boulder, Colorado. “This is why NOAA has a Space Weather Prediction Center — to forecast when space weather is coming our way, so we can avoid or mitigate damages.”
People in 1859 didn’t have that advantage though, when a solar eruption essentially charged the air on Earth with electricity, taking out telegraph offices across the globe. Some telegraph operators received electric shocks and papers within offices caught fire. The interference even caused telegraph equipment to continue distributing signals once the equipment had been turned off. According to a 2008 report by the National Research Council, an eruption of comparable magnitude today could cause $1 trillion to $2 trillion in damage worldwide.
NOAA officials are working closely with Britain on developing an updated facility to improve forecasting abilities and our understanding of how weather, in space or on Earth, can affect technology systems.
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this is fascinating – and the image is gorgeous as well. thank you for this article.
With little searching, you can find the movie of the full halo CME. Full halo means that it is headed right for us.
Expect some REALLY cool aurora, predicted to be down to Pennsylvania, when the CME arrives.
Hope the ISS crew remain safe!
Sun can make earth it's b!tch without so much as a peep from us.
BEND OVER, INSIGNIFICANT EARTHLINGS
P*SSIES
BUNCH OF D!CKS, ANYWAY
Can't believe those b@stards voted me out
oh, oh, let's allocate several billion $$$$ for research so we know when our phones will go out. That's a priority right?
Yes, Luddite. It's good to know when it's coming and how to protect against it.
YOU may not need a telephone, but we working folks do.
YOU may not need electricity, but hospitals and schools do.
YOU may not need satellites, but we thinking and communicating people do.
YOU may not need GPS, but people who travel and do business do.
If you hate taxes and technology so much, move to an Amish farm.
It is when you need to call 911 because your house is on fire.
That looks like a picture of my a$$ after I have really spicy food.
You sure got an ugly a$$.
The most powerful force in the universe who created all of the wonderfulness of all that we are, needs a HELPER?
You either believe that GOD is what it is or you are calling GOD a incompetent who can't handle his own handy work.
All of these false representatives are there for the sake of those who can't deal with their own problems and need
a surrogate idol to worship. Believe in GOD and believe in yourself. Giving money to phoney mouthpieces is DUMB.
Look, I know it's a bit advanced a concept for you, but I'll give it a whack.
This is a story about a solar flare and massive Coronal Mass Ejection that is Earthbound. The story talked in detail about possible effects and past impacts of large Coronal Mass Ejections.
It said nothing at all about a creator, God, Allah or Reverend Jim. It didn't talk about chimps or chumps.
So, as much as I respect the first amendment, shove it up sideways.
Oh boy, here we go
Reminds me of Y2k.
Talk about reading between the lines. Anybody can study the sun, only a twerp can confuse a scientific statement of fact with idol worship, or lack of worship of the invisible.
Actually Y2k was a man made problem having to do with simple minded computer code, except for the problems related to the end of the world. (which never happened as far as we can tell) This is real problem which can be measured scientifically (as long as the instruments aren't burnt up in the process. You know, sorta like measuring a 480 v. circuit with a 6 v meter.
I read these comments and I see why half of our population needs to be wiped out...some of you guys are just plain dumb border-line retarded and will never take anything seriously. And for those who follow religion, your the weakest of the weak, your can be easily brain washed with a story that as been told ten times over before your Christ...Your dumb, gullible and easily manipulated!
Yes, you sir are a dickhole.
No matter what half we keep, though, it'll be a bad half, you know that, right?
What will you say when you are witnessing Christs return ? Are you gonna be one that begs a mountain to fall on you OR will you be among us who will be overjoyed at the realization that we are about to go home ?
Waiting for Christ's return? I think you missed it. He went soaring by on the Hale Bop comet.
you go on home first, we'll catch up later
Before referring to others as "borderline retarded", maybe you should learn the difference between *you're* and *your*.
OH SNAP
Wow, Ian. I have a 156 IQ, believe in science AND in God. What cracks me up about you atheists who mock us believers is that science admittedly understands less than 1% of the 'known' universe (and we're not even talking about the 'unknown' universe). On top of that, the Big Bang is a theory with NO actual evidence supporting it (though I believe in its principles too).
But, what gets me rolling on the floor laughing is that now all you hypocrites who turn to science as your 'truth' are chasing quantum energy, a substance that can't be detected, touched, or seen, but that makes up more than 73% of the universe, supposedly. How hilarious is that? Hmm ... let me get this straight ... something that can't be seen, touched, or detected makes up a majority of the universe and influences everything else. It just HAS to be there, right?
Yeah, right. How about you trolls stick your head in the sand and think about that for a while. Science explains things, yes, but to profess that believers in God are delusional ... now THAT'S the pot calling the kettle black. Hmm .. what would you call something that HAS to be there but can't be seen, touched, or detected? I can't even imagine.
Now, go back to your cave and think.
The minute a guy feels he needs to whip out his awesome IQ score...he loses The Game.
..then there is string theory and "alternate dimensions and universes–the temperature of the sun and the size, black holes, worm holes, etc–NONE of which have been physically seen or measured–just man made calculations to underline man made positions about the unknowable–in other words, for those who choose to (I am a microbiologist) the "religion of a Supreme Being" is replaced by the religion of man–BOTH of which require steadfast belief, conjecture and an amazing leap of faith and unwavering trust in that that version of reality is the "truth". The sun is how hot? No instruments measured it–so how do we know again?
I guess that high IQ just makes it easier to believe in the bearded man in the sky. This whole discussion is rather humorous, really. If your god was creator of all, blah blah blah, then why did his followers have to appropriate pagan holidays and celebrations to gain followers and assist in conversions?
Believe what you want to believe, let others believe in what they want to believe in- your IQ means next to nothing if you waste it by trying to insult others like a run-of-the-mill 'you don't believe what I do, so you're stupid' bigot. Both sides on the religious debate have them... both sides should shut up.
Yes, that means you, too.
@Ian85: And that's why we have...politicians! 😀
You people with tin foil hats had better line it with insulating material – another layer of heavy duty foil wouldn't hurt either.
this is fascinating – and the image is gorgeous as well. thank you for this article.
Better arm yourselves, Gore will be playing his usual PT Barnum role for this one. Carbon credits anyone!
Your idiocy knows no bounds. Pollution is good, in your book, it's better to have air that is lethal to 10% of the population. It's better to have birth defects, due to pollutants in the air. It's better to have the Earth a giant desert.
You are so stupid, that you think a story about the SUN and a flare and a coronal mass ejection is about global warming.
Do you know that there are TWO nations that share a singular honor of not ratifying the Kyoto Accord? Afghanistan and the US. Why? Because, ONLY in the US is global climate change argued about. Every OTHER planet in the inner solar system has warmed, but not the Earth, because the GOP says so. The GOP, who was against every environmental protection, food and drug protection, pure water and air.
Now, go take a remedial reading class. You REALLY need it. You're putting the US in the same class as Afghanistan.
So, If ALL of the other planets are warming (which has NOT actually been determined, by the way!), then this climate change cannot possibly be caused by Human industrialization, can it? Maybe THAT is the REAL reason the US govt. did not sign the Kyoto agreement, hmm ?! Who is the idiot here?
Strange comparison. PT never used scientifically verifiable facts, nor did he ever try intend to try and educate.
So really? A Sun Fart is going to cost $1-2Trillion? smh
Yes; the scientific name for this type of event is called an "Obama".
Ah, the `always looking for an opportunity to bash our President` crowd. This one truly deserves `more ridiculous than most` status. Solar flares? Really?
LOL Now that is funny!
Sheesh we are talking science here and another right wing nut with nothing better to do than change the subject. Stop wastling our time Rick.
Let's see, blown out power distribution systems, satellites blown out, telephone exchanges blown out...
Yep, 1-2 trillion dollars sounds a bit cheap.
Ok, GOD was an Alien. There, I said it ! GET OVER YOURSELVES !
Yeah! Also God I mean the aliens slept with the woman. We know thier is a lot of b!τchεs nowadays. About solar flares let it happen we need it.
What's he talking about 2013.... 4 day before next Xmas.....It's all over! 12/21/12
We can only hope that it's right this time, lol
OK Teabaggers, all at once now. One...Two...Three... OBAMA'S FAULT
Looks like I dont have to say it, but its communist BO's fault.
As opposed to say Bush's fault?
Na its the Republicans fault, Democrats fault, Tea Partys fault, Obamas fault.... SOoo many people to blame and not enough time! LOL
Deja vu...lol
Boring, trex.
It's all Obama's fault................
Not his fault but maybe he can go measure the temp. of the flare
hugh hefner is older than the sun, he never uses suncreen in the grotto I hear.
My head hurts from reading all these comments.
I really hope I don't die from any kind of solar flares/space something or other/global warming/ whatever else... in the next few years... I'd like my 5 year old son to live a long happy life here on planet earth.
I also don't want to die soon because I have plans to move to Key West when I retire. 🙂
Seriously though, I love reading about space. Just thinking about other galaxies and the entire universe itself blow my mind.
*blows* not blow.
shut the hell up grammar king. no one cares for your petty corrections.
To 'Levi', that person actually corrected their own spelling error. 🙂
Levi... HAHAHAHAHA fail...
*facepalm*
I have a feeling the sun might be a terrorist tryin 2 steal our freedom. Is that better?
Much!
A C.M.E ( corona mass ejection) could be what this planet needs. A mega c.m.e which is possible in the near future could very well end the electro-digital era . Imagine a world with no working satelites and a power grid damaged beyond repair. We're a insignificant gnat compared to the forces that the cosmos can throw at us. If there is doomsday scenerio i believe a c.m.e event is the most plausible. And with the way things are going in this world it might be the only thing to save it.
We could finally get all these idjits off the internet.
I am in complete agreement with you on this. We had less problems when Bush was in office. Obama is responsible for our recession, jobs, and housing bust. Hopefully we can move forward with a good christian candidate who will stop unions and bring prayer back into our schools.
@Larry: ROFL
Larry, you are a moron of epic proportion!
Our final countdown?
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ntHmIqKetg&w=640&h=360]
Ugh. Find a new thing to bring up all of the time.
AAHHH! The art of writing could actually return!
We NEED to fire off all the rockets in the world into the sun. But the mass needs more, so we should put all the teabaggers into them and tell them that Palin is headed for the sun. They will fight to get aboard.
Hopefully the HAARP project will be able to stave off some of those errant solar waves!.
If our SUN is keep releasing flares like this, it gonna die soon in front of our eyes!!
This is NORMAL. This has been a cycle that has been happening ever since the sun was born. It is right in the middle of the Main Sequence which means that it still has several million years of life left. Every 11-12 years the sun goes through cycles of high and low activity. Think of it like a hormone cycle but for the sun. The sun is not about to die before our eyes because of a flare.
No worries. The Sun is not going to die in front of your eyes. Unless, of course, you are going to stay alive for approx. another 4 billion years. Then yea!
Today, Sarah Palin blames Obama for the HUGE solar flare and says that how come Obama didn't see it coming?
The sun is also complaining about the sky high national debt. Maybe now Obama will listen.
Yeah... and maybe he can teach republicans what 'compromising for the good of the people' means.
they run this story every few years. it's actually caused by the earth's high CO2 emmissions and global warming.
Earth wouldn't have such high emissions if you would stop eating those fried bologna sandwiches
And cork yer pie-hole while yer at it.
I hope the solar flare just kills all the religous people in the world. Those people are starting to bug me. Like the crabs in my p hair.
Jimmy_ wash it.
No wonder it's so dam hot in Texas!
Solar flares are caused by sunspots. They are giant holes in the surface of the sun. They "repair" themselves by a huge electromagnetic shockwave the explodes across the surface of the sun like a "rubberband" effect. When the field snaps back into place it creates a "Coronal Mass Ejection". This is basic scientific knowledge. However, every 11 yrs the solar cycle peaks creating more sun spots thus creating more flares. The scary part of this cycle is that there barely any spots this time and when this occurs it means that the sun has expanded in diameter. It also means that when there is an actual spot, it is thousands of times larger than normal, thus creating CME's of apocolyptic proportions. If the earth just happens 2 be in the path of one of these it will penetrate our atmosphere and incinerate everything in its path just like in that movie everyone is talking about. The sad part is, the u.s. Government knows this and they are scrambling 2 save themselves and make sure you are contained. Look at those FEMA camps poppin up all over, space station construction, and it just so happens that NASA will not be dabbling in missions anymore- at least not in the public eye. If u knew the truth, u prolly wouldnt care anymore and their tax base would collapse and they could not finance their escape. And btw- I can build a machine that can lift that much weight into the upper atmosphere. Lets see if I live 2 watch armageddon- quincy7613@ y a hoo.com
I'll makeit. I have tin hat and fire suit!
Ah off the meds today?
Whooooooooooo, Dooms day!
The best part about this post is how it starts out sounding so reasonable, and then suddenly spirals out of control once you're too far in to stop reading. It's as if two different people wrote it.
several people living inside that one body... split personality, they take turns at the computer keyboard.
Dude your scientific knowledge is significantly flawed.
WOW good comeback to the post. You might want to expand on that.
For the umpteenth time we are not going to die from solar flares in 2012. Please stop with the subliminal LIES. If anyone dies from anything it will be the coming war and lack of faith in Christ Jesus. That's right, now go ahead and mock Him so I can prove my point...
Why mock "Him" when we can mock you?
Lol @ People who still believe the stories in the bible. Lemme ask you this, and be honest. If you where given a clean slate on your perception on the creation of the universe and faith. And two people came up to you, one explaining how the universe and the earth was created from a scientific point of few, and another told you that a man in the clouds created it in seven day's with magical power's. Which are you going to believe?
scientific point of view* Sorry, perhaps im dyslexic.
Huh? If you knew anything about scripture you would know it's not about some "man in the clouds"?? maybe you've read to many childrens stories. Or maybe you have a very very BASIC idea of what scripture is and where they came from? Sorry, but man is mere dust compared to the complexity and vastness of GOD's Universe. Now go find a Bible and actually READ it.
No thanks Joel3 – waiting on the movie. The book sucks.
So what is the scientific point of view these days? How was the universe created? When did it start?
FYI–people who believe in God do not base their belief merely on the bible or on a "shurch" they base it on a belief and faith that aligns with the configuration of their souls. This means those who choose not to believe do so due to the configuration of their souls and their perception, those who DO believe base it on the configuration of their souls and their perception. In a nutshell–it is something people intuit–some intuit there the earth and we and everything else is too large to be explained or rationalized by the latest/greatest take on things by men–they choose this path because the alternate path (man's religion) is that everything is random, the earth is random, everything holds together and works based on randomness and it call came from this randomness and continues because of this randomness and all mathematics, physics, chemistry etc extrapolates from this random act, and "rules" or laws for the random origin which–by virtue of their existence (the rules and laws) render the random act not so random at all–and still leaves the question of origin unanswered.
To many, God is the answer, to others randomness and the unknown based on the latest theory is their answer
I would go with the man the clouds every time.........
Neither, I'd read it straight out of a King James 1611 and believe what the book says. Didn't you know that the Bible is at least 500 years ahead of any leading scientist who ever lived? I guess you never read Job Chapter 38. Or can you even read? Ignorance is bliss, man, ignorance is bliss.
Yeah I'm gona have to go with "Man in the Clouds" theory. God exists in everything around us. The Earth began from a big bang? That's like saying 2 tractor trailers crashed into each other and came out of the wreckage as a 747. God is in your heart if you close your mouth long enough to hear your heart you will find all the answers you personally need. God wont yell at you, demand you to hear him.. He will whisper and hope that you want to find Him. In the end though, the choice is yours.
Let's see. Would I believe that something just kind of showed up from somewhere, then blew up, then a bunch of chemicals just happened to come together in the right way to form life, on a planet that just happened to have all the right items to support that life, and that somehow that life managed to work its way up from nothing to eventually become sentient? Or, that there is some guiding force behind all of this that we don't really understand? Yeah, tough call there. It makes perfect sense that an improbable, nearly impossible series of coincidences occurred in just the right way to bring us here.
both are impossible... both were created from something, in a space where there was nothing. Either is believable yet unbelievable... But think of all the bible states that science did not know. Like saying there was nothing before... and then he created the oceans, then the lands then the animals... the bible states it pretty much in order. So either ancient people knew about how it started (the guys that came thousands of years before Jesus).or were told about it...
Also assuming Science is right... well luck is scientifically unproven. As in there is no way to explain luck, it should not exists...yet luck is the very reason we are here
depends on how much LSD I'd consumed in the prior 24 hrs... I've definitely seen the man in the clouds before... but it turned out on closer examination it was actually a committee of different alien consciousness's whose sole purpose was to deliver short bursts of mental self satisfaction either through self induced hypnosis (see prayer), self induced medication (see drugs) or through simple direct communication (see your local mental institution, I'll be their to say hi!)
Hear's an expert from the bible "And man was created in god's perfect image." But oh.... whats this over here in the ground. Its the skeleton of a Neanderthal, not a homosapien? Either your all powerful god was half monkey or the bible is wrong. Anyone who believes the stories of faith are anything other then tools to control uneducated masses is well... a part of the uneducated masses. And face it, you truly dont want to be a good person, you are only afraid of burning in hell for the rest of eternity cuz that's what the preacher said as he wagged his finger at you accusingly.
The Wisdom of Solomon in the Book of Apocrypha states that the sun has a differential rotation. This was written thousands of years ago. Science has to consistently play "catch up" to the facts in the Bible.
There's no point in arguing with religious people. They have a silly, irrational argument/response for everything. It's part of their brainwashing process. They're all given the same, unoriginal, and completely fantastical responses for every argument. They're just repeating what they heard somewhere else, or, quoting words from the so-called "bible" like that's even relevant. I feel pity for them. What a horrible life it must be feeling so controlled and constrained! Having to conform to some set of archaic rules simply out of fear of retribution! Of course, they'd argue the opposite but that's because they have to. If they didn't their "faith would be tested" and they'd fail as Chistians/Muslims/Whatever. Silly, small-minded people aren't worth the time. Live and let live. I wish they'd do the same...
Let me ask you a question, suppose the Biblical version of creation is true for a second. Were people created as infants, were animals new borns, were plants mere sprouts? The Bible implies they were full grown. The heavens were created with stars already in them, i.e., full grown. Why would the Earth be an infant? Try learning some basic logic before you ridicule the belief system of others.
Another Expert (in what? – stupidity?) There are NO FACTS contained in the Bible. There is not a single first hand, eyewitness account of anything anywhere in the Bible. Those are simply ancient legends that were passed down generation to generation and embellished as they were re-told until they were finally written down. Then they were mis-translated and further embellished for political reasons. If there is a single word of truth left, it is by complete coincidence!
Someone who honestly thinks the other ninety five percent of us suffer from some form of mass delusion?
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDR4oHj6n6A&w=640&h=360]
I just want to back slap some of the posters here. One poster claims that these solar flares will decimate the earth in 2012. The read was interesting, but it was non-sensical. then, below that a person stated that the movie 2012 is fiction; which is true but then the only way we will destroy ourselves is from war (batting 1000) and "lack of faith in jesus christ" and now the bottom fell out.
*facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm*
I could, but I do not want to waste the energy. Are people really this....stupid? Really?
I would continue, but my face hurts from hitting it with frusteration.
Reply if you understand.
I agree shoop, and yes most are really that stupid.
So sorry you are "frusterated," shoop.
let's keep the conversation within science, not religion. thank you.
i always thought his name was Jesus Christ? i don't know much, but i do know peace is much more obtainable without him. you can never convert the whole world.
Am I the only one who fail's to see the connection between solar flares and political agendas?
It seems you are the only one, Rob. The nutters are everywhere on internet boards. Look at an article on Baseball, or Basket Weaving, and there they are, blaming Bush, or Obama, or quoting nonsense from talk radio. No need to wonder why this country is circling the bowl...
and don't forget to throw religion into it.
Nope. Looks like Solar Demon shares your perspective. Myself, I think it's hogwash.
Oh, never mind – misread your post. I'm on your side!! 🙂
Good point Rob M.
Look! Up in the sky! (Pay no attention to the dysfunction in DC)
I got me a bunch of Walmart bags ready to run out and snatch up some of that energy. That will save on the ole electric bill.
While you're there, don't forget the Pringles.
Magnetic Energy Apocalypse – Solar Flares – NASA
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Br7w-4OgGU&w=640&h=360]
According to Obama it's Bush's fault. According to Bush, well he just laughs and has a rigth to when looking at the mess Obama has created.
Nope. It's just the republicans....ALL of them.
Ya, I'm one of those crazy Republicans that knows that you cannot spend more than you make. The bank tells me that and fines me a service fee if I do it so I don't. This is very simple economic good since that if you don't spend more than you make you can pay off the deft. I also remember that Liers Figure and Figures Lie. With a national debt that keeps rising and our congress does nothing about it, when will the debt be paid? That's easy, it never will be and if you think that S&P down grade was bad wait until the USA defaults on it's obligations. Somehow there is a very large group of people that think money grows on trees and is free from the printing presses. Money is worth less today becasue we devalue it by printing more and more basically toilet paper and no one wants it around the world, but we keep on printing anyway.
Oh really, so cut programs for the poor but don't touch those BIG Corp profits huh? Cut spending but decrease revenue huh genius? You people are a disgrace and your priorities are out of wack. You are protecting the WRONG people and that's why America will burn for it. The lobbyists have their hands up your behind and in your pockets. Get a clue. Your "ideologue" is a complete mess.
Hi Dave- If that is the kind of Republican that you are then I think you need to have a talk with your whole party about do-nothing tax cuts and unecessary wars. Thanks.
America was already spending more than she made–the minute we started paying upwards of 300 million dollars a DAY in Iraq–on a war based on lies. Where were the Republicans calling a halt to such lunacy before hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were displaced, maimed and/or destroyed?
@Queenbee what about the majority of democrats who approved of it?
Apparently, solar flares can cause delusional thinking as well, it seems.
LOL!!!!!!!!!
ignorant republicans...
You don't know much about how the political process was designed by the forefathers and continues to work today.
Congress holds the "power of the purse". To blame Obama alone just shows ignorance.
Further, not only were the two wars started by Bush devastating to our debt, so was the increase of troops. Our medical costs for the warriors have drastically skyrocketed, due to IED injuries that will cost us the rest of their lives, mental health care that will cost us the rest of their lives and death benefits which will cost us the rest of their survivors' lives. We aren't talking about old people, either.
The initial Wall Street bailout was a Bush product. I don't like our bailouts, but I have been told that retirement savings and investments would have been wiped out if the banks had been allowed to fail.
Our economy can't continue to take on more debt like it is in rising health costs for the military. But we owe our military and their entitlements will not be denied. The other agencies budgets are peanuts compared to DoD and VA and those who believe we can get the necessary funds to pay down debt drastically by squeezing other agencies are misinformed. We have to revise the tax code and in the interim, let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy (at least) expire.
In the long run, once the wealthy pay a similar percentage of their income in taxes as the middle class and the wealthy is cut off from benefits they don't even need, we will start to real in the debt. Closing the federal government will hurt more than it helps.
And this has.... what to do with solar flares again?
Sounds like the rationale of a short sighted, kneejerk tool.
Ha Ha HA Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. Savage was right this time!
I'm not a republican since I'm an actual conservative. I find it offensive that moronic republitard comments like this give conservatism a bad name.
This liberal thanks you for that comment!
Please do not feed the trolls.
Kind of puts all the puney BS here on earth in perspective in that we are about as important as a fea fart here on earth in the grand scheme of things at the cosmos level
I believe the debt ceiling just hit the sun...awesome
Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEwVcsHnf3o&w=640&h=360]
sounds like a confession of being an abused child and abuser of children. Put this guy in jail and make sure you try to screen children he got in contact with so to make sure if they need help. It's most important to avoid them becoming child abusers as well.
Himself, it's probably too late to help him, ... castration would probably his urges, but of course this country knows better, so he will be locked up for life, for sake of protecting children.
I'm gonna buy me some sun screen!
Ya gotta consider that actual tinfoil hats might not be such a silly idea after all.
As a scientist, writer and someone who has studied the climate in depth all I can say is most of these comments are a darn good reason to abortion safe legal and possibly retro-active. If you want to see the affects of Global Climate change take a look at the SST's for the central Pacific and wonder why the only NON-beleivers in the world are the ones that listen to too much AM talk radio. Solar flares have very very little to do with the climate change, just radiation levels will be naturally higher for brief periods. More 'dangerous' (roflol) than the incident in Japan to North Americans.
I love it!
The voice of reason lights a candle in a dark, dark room.
Who still listens to AM Radio???? lmaooooooo
Actually there's a theory recently proven that increased sun activity contributes to increased cloud formation. When the sun activity slows down, it results in reduced cloud formation. The current increased activity in the solar cycle may actually bring about cooling. How much long term effect it has no one is sure of but it certainly influences the climate. To say the sun doesn't influence the climate? Best of luck to you.
For more information google Ulrik Ingerslev Uggerhøj
It's just ol sols reaction to the S&P downgrade. After all he knows the teapublcants caused it all.
Now everyone is going to realize Bush did a great job of slashing the deficitto fund the the effective trickle down 2.0 program. Would still be in good shape if Obama did not tank the economy by removing entitlements.
You got an urgent need to get a freshman economics text.
What?
Bwuh?
I can hear al gore now, omg that cant be a solar flare responsable for the southern heat, its gotta be global warming!!! if people believe its the suns cycle, I al gore wont be able to fleece america any more with my global warming trumpet!!!
Is it possible to be so stupid as to believe a solar flare is responsible for the current heat wave?
probably equally as possible to believe global warming is the cause of the heat wave.
CME – coronal mass ejection: a burst of solar winds, plasma and magnetic fields released into space. Not the same as a solar flare. In other words, solar ejaculation.
It's Obama's fault.
Lol and my toilet wasnt working for a couple days. Might as well blame Obama, everyone is blaming him for eveything else.
I just s- myself. Thanks Obama.
I hear Ol' Mr. Sol was heavy on Bank of America stock. Now we've done it....
As we put on the Ray bans and clutch our balls in defiance like we did with the Russians.
Huh!?
The only thing alive will be mexicans and roaches after this solar radiation gets done with us!!
No, Al Gore will emerge from his Climate Controled Global Warming Bunker to declare he was right all along.
The only thing left will be your toasted butt face and the roaches that you will have to eat to survive! You wacked out ass
I dunno, I think they are just trying to scare us, i went outside and looked at the sun and I didn't see any big flares.
That was hilarious. I laughed my butt off at that one.
damn liberals are always lying... If i can't see it, it must not be true! *sarcasm* 🙂
Big enough CME and PFFFFFFFTTTT!!!! We'll see it coming for about 14 hours!
this frickn heat is going to destroy us all if we don't get some rain soon!! Fuge the cellphones and gps systems fuge the police!! We need rain biatttchhhhhhhessss
are you kidding me, it takes 5.7 minutes for light from the sun to reach our earths atmosphere.
Light particles from the sun take eight minutes. There are other types of particles that travel slower then light that will have effect.
NO! NO! You've all got it wrong! This is **clearly** (as in – no argument to the contrary will be permitted – you know, like the great Lowball Warming summits?) caused by humans burning fossil fuels. No reasonable person could possibly think differently!!
This has nothing to do w/carbon dioxide in our atmosphere from fossil fuel or burning coal you dumb tea bagger, now open up and say awe... I have some nutz for you
Busted you are an ignorant #%@^#%^
he was being sarcastic, and so was you, and youre both funny lol.I can hear al gore now, omg that cant be a solar flare responsable for the southern heat, its gotta be global warming!!! if people believe its the suns cycle, I al gore wont be able to fleece america any more with my global warming trumpet!!!
Busted~! Your comments are right on and very funny.
BTW ~ When I have a flare-up, I reach for the Tucks.
Bob in PA calling someone ignorant...high comedy indeed.
Obviously you know more about it than the overwhelming majority of climatologists who say that climate change is influenced by human activity, as well as other factors.
NO NO you all all got it wrong....The amount of time changes given the change of distance from earth to the sun... The longest amount of time is 8 sec. During the winter solstice of course; when the earth is furthest from the sun. Good try though.
You need an Astronomy book. Badly.
Truly – this has to be the best series of comments ever on CNN! EVER!!!
You're not kidding. I've been laughing for a half hour now.
Yep, the perfect mix of smart arse comments and know-it-alls to flip out over them.
It MUST be a slow news day. TWO science stories on CNN's site in one day, right on the main page!
UNHEARD OF!
Give it 5 minutes, the Kardashians will bump it off the main page.
I love how everyone tries to make all of these discussions political.
This is a load of fear-mongering crap. Minor electrical disturbances and pretty northern lights are about all that could possibly happen from these CMEs. Tell me about something that could actually harm us – like an asteroid or something.
So, power grids down for potentially months at a time are of no import? Satellites blown out are unimportant?
IQ tests should be required before permitting a person to vote!
Howie's right. CMEs do cause minor disruptions to ordinary citizens, at most, although for the few people who might be affected, they are good to know about.
What exactly could happen to humans on the ISS?
Power grids will not go down for five minutes, let alone months. there simply is not the right kind or amount of energy in a CME to do that.
Thanks arm chair Heliologist. I feel much better now that you've added your expert advice.
Fear mongering???? I guess so if you're afraid of information.
It's Obama's fault, I'm sure of it. What else could have triggered this? It's the Sun's response to the global financial crisis. "FRY 'em all!" lol
You sure he didn't inherit this from GW?
The tea baggers probably caused the big uproar on the sun, spawning the CME's.
Can Sarah see the Sun from her home in Alaska?
No, Sarah keeps her head where the sun don't shine.
Obama Hip Hop Party fails to pacify angry Sun God.
You sound like a racist......
You sound like a p00n
Tom isn't a racist, just a fox news employee
The 2013 solar maximum could knock-out the grid for a long period of time resulting in nuclear power plants to keep spent fuel pools cool by back-up diesel generators, failure of any of these at 104 locations around the U.S. would result in massive amounts of radiation released into the surrounding environment. All spent fuel needs to be in dry cask storage ASAP!
2013 Huh????? If you will all remember, we will be already deceased on Dec. 21 2012, so we won't have to worry about 2013.
Dry storage casks have ZERO cooling, so you'd make the problem 10000 times worse!
Leave nuclear energy safety to EXPERTS, as you amateurs would cause disasters far worse than Chernobyl.
I've spent YEARS deployed on installations powered VERY reliably by diesel generators. If it works for the DoD, it'll work for the plants.
Once properly cooled spent fuel is stored in dry cask. This however is not always done as soon as is can be because of the high cost. Note I did say ASAP.
Sounds like the sun needs a giant carton of Preparation H!
It must have eaten P F Chang's all weekend.
That's what I call a true Flaming Ah-So....
More like an H2 blocker. Going to get space Barrett's after a while.
What does not exist cannot be effected.
Solar flares are nothing. If we ever have a gamma-ray burst come anywhere near our solar system, we're screwed.
At least if it happens, we'll be dead before we knew what hit us.
I hope I turn into The Thing.
My thoughts, exactly.
Gamma ray burst? Apply SPF 60 and lick lots of lead pipes beforehand. Or just retreat into the basement for the duration. Honestly people, read a textbook.
I just made myself a cone hat out of aluminum foil which should protect me in the short term. My question though is knowing the solar storms will likely knock out the GPS satellites, will my old paper maps still work when I try to use them to escape to the country?
KIDDING of course!
Good one! 😛
I am loving the sarcasm on here! Almost as much as the id10ts that can distiguish between it and a real comment. Nothing like making an outrageuos statement then watching people stroke out! LMFAO!!!!!
I checked it out, it's 11 minutes.
Fantastic Four?
Ok how long has the sun been burning for billions of years. if we have heat waves we have heat waves no big deal. And I laugh that these scientist at NASA always have to say, "oh in this year this will happen" ok wait for that year to come. And maybe this flare might be good in a scene, if it dose cut off it mess up electronics damn we need to be off the phones.
You misunderstand the importance. This isn't just cell phone usage. A large solar flare could knock out power grids, global communication even as minute as a basic radio broadcast system, and communication with planes, trains, and navy fleets. Do you want to be on a plane when suddenly the pilot doesn't have any communication with the ground or the other hundreds of planes that are traveling toward the same destination?
This has nothing to do with heat waves. If you had actually read the article or had even the most basic understanding of the Sun's magnetism you would realize this...
Maybe we'll get lucky and the credit company and debtors will lose all their data including their backups and we can all be debt free. Oh the banks may get hurt and the credit companies ... pardon me if I can't shed a tear for that.
Ahh but now they admit climate change is happening, they just don't believe fossil fuel burning people are the cause. As if squirrels would be burning 60 billion barrels of oil a day.
None of that can possibly happen, media is blowing a non-event out of proportion again due to a lack of understanding of basic science.
WTF!!! Dude, you need medical attention right away.
I don't understand what the big f–king deal is about global warming (or climate change as the tree huggers are now calling it), its all a big glob of BS so that governments can gain more and more control and have more to tax people for (carbon credits anyone?) I live in Indiana and I have experienced "climate change" 4 times a year here since day one. It's called "Spring", "Summer", "Fall", and "Winter". Trust me, its gonna be ok...at least till Jesus comes back at the Rapture, and if you're still here after that, THEN you can hit the panic button.
well... I'm relieved... I can trust you... I was starting to fall for that energy balance 'conspiracy theory' – you know those lies made up by the government that in – out + generation – consumption = accumulation... or in their more popular phrasing - you put more energy in then is allowed to leave a net increase results... this increase being sensed as heat and for a given thermal mass (earth) - is realized as temperature rise - I'm glad you laid all of those lies to rest and I can trust you though... thanks
Gee I wonder if he's a Republican or a democrat? Yeah Global warming "is a myth". Which is why EVER SINGLE SUMMER for the past 20 years has gotten progressively hotter. These idiots will wait till it's 180 and finally go "Ok I'm ready to consider the global warming thing" Well, ya know, it will be a little TOO LATE THEN – NEANDERTHAL.
Really? I think you just made that stat up... please show me a reliable source that shows our summers have gotten progressively hotter...
Chaz Words mean stuff. Your statement is patently false, as backed up by the IPCC. I know what you meant, but you didn't say it. You're just proving what we think of you anyway.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age for global arming – it's true – but, not man made. Pay particular attention to the "Variations in temperature, CO2, and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400,000 years" (pic on lower left).
meant . . . lower right
warpony - please, find a more reliable source than wikipedia, thank you
The flare can be powerful. Ask Bachmann. She was hit in the head the last time around.
That's what she gets for wearing that tinfoil hat.
I want to blame bush and his old bush lady!! What what!!!!
Anyone see the Nick Cage move "Knowing"? I think the end is near. Kinda crappy if you just put a down payment on a house.
yea, and so close to the year 2012
If you believe that the end is near based on watching "Knowing" then make sure you believe the sentiment put forth by Nick Cage's Father in the movie which is something like 'this isn't the end'. Everybody dies. If you have a year or if you have 75 years left, just make it count!
Ah but if you're over 50, lost your house, your savings, your 401k and a business, this is a good thing.
I carry a BLACK STONE, found three months before the movie "Knowing' was released. Did take a while to figure out what the stone meant. The finding of the stone was a year after my business filling as an emergency planning consultant. Interesting.
Would you mind emailing me? I am intrigued! my name at gmail.
@RRMON: Well, I carry a grey stone. And when you can snatch it from my palm, it will be time for you to leave...grasshopper.
AHHH! What a great time to be alive...
I am a network admin and our internet has been flapping for past few days. Technicians stated that there is a lot of 'noise' on the lines. Also, I've had to replace 3 laptop power cords in past 2 days. A sign of things to come? Imagine the whole electrical grid being damaged that it is offline for months or even years? No economic recovery then! Nasa themselves says that it could happen.
You mean no more C.O.D? No zombies?
Expect mystery crashes and errors too. Weird spikes slip past power line conditioning, due to the extreme energy that "rings" the Earth's magnetic field like a bell.
I've had a few odd crashes with the last CME that hit. Didn't lose any equipment though.
NOAA has a mailing list that gives solar weather forecasts and CME warnings. At 0812 UTC there was a massive x-ray event, it's not the most powerful one so far, but it's up there.
From old briefings, while I was doing DoD work, they're anticipating the loss of at least two GPS satellites during the solar maximum and probably one or two commercial birds too.
Being up in the ISS doesn't sound like a fun thing right now!
No doubt that these are interesting times. I guess I should have mentioned that our UPS have clicked on and off quite a bit during this period indicating voltage fluctuations on the electrical lines. The worst is probably yet to come, unfortunately.
I have a sister goes by the name CJ. She's always flapping around saying the sky is falling too. Must be in the name.
You must be a liberal Obama worshiper.
I should also state that every 'Debbie' I have ever met has been a b!tch
CJ, your mama drive a beer truck!
Run up in your spot like CJ from san andreas!
you shut yer h0r mouth
I too have had a lot of network issues but was attributing it to the bosses nitwit spawn that he hired.
He couldn't hold a job at any other place so now he is our bright, new summer intern.
He claims not to be touching the equipment but cables don't suddenly get loose, drop out of the connector or crawl to the neighboring port.
Things were pretty stable until he showed but I guess we could blame the Solar Flares.
Hmmm – new nickname for the brain fried intern - Solar Flare
We just let our other network guy go for the same reasons.
If u don't know what u is doing... Don't touch the equipment!
lmfao. I work with a few of those. The worse a tech does and the least he knows the better the corporation and the contract house threat them. Unreal. I know why Corporate America is dying. They hire based on BS rather than substance. No ethics, no sense, and they reward lazy incompetence. Solar flares for sure.
I've had a few mystery failures over the past few days- a cpu module, two memory modules, and a power supply unit in my half of the datacenter over the course of a few days. There will probably be more (always are) as I spin up more of the servers for next week's clients. Unfortunately since we have a bargain-basement support contract (wasn't my idea, I fought against it but someone up high was trying to save pennies without regard for the long term again) it takes much longer to fix this stuff than it does to break it.
GEEZ!! Quit telling us how bad it COULD be! Either the solar flare is pointed in our general direction or it isn't. Either way, there isn't much we can do, other than turning off sensitive electronics.
Yeah, don't WARN anyone. We'll guess when to disconnect sensitive electronics. We'll GUESS when to shut down satellites. We'll wing it when to recall the men from the ISS.
I'll take any warning I can get, as I LIKE protecting my assets.
Yes, I would tend to agree. However, media warnings never have any warnings except in hindsight. How about some person who knows something telling us something more definitive than COULD. So you may listen to all the sensationalist crap you want to. I have to actually research stuff so I don't lose my assets in case the media is wrong. Think Katrina, oil spill, etcetera.
amen
even as i post this i wonder how many will see it ...but my opinion is that the sun is responsible for the heat waves around the globe ..boom ..solar flair sending uv radiation and other harmful rays will strike the earth..who knows what it could permantly do to our atmosphere if it hit the planet it could make it imposible to even go outside ..these are serious matters ..and the sad part is the united states people will probably be the last to know because our government will try to prevent a panic...i believe it will send us back into the dark ages ...
You are an idiot. Pure, distilled idiocy is your currency.
Here are the FACTS.
The Earth has been hit by events FAR worse than this. Like the one mentioned in the story, where telegraph operators got shocked by pulses from the telegraph lines, where recorder paper and wax melted and burned in telegraph offices.
Yet, there was NO ENVIRONMENT IMPACT, save for a few birds getting lost.
In the 1970's, there was a massive CME that struck the Earth, it knocked the power out for a large section of Canada.
ZERO environmental impact.
Your hot air, MASSIVE environmental impact.
Ever hear of the Little Ice Age?
One theory was that it was caused by the lack of solar activity (Dalton Minimum) resulting in a drop in temp, resulting in a 300 year cold snap.
what about Year Without a Summer?
Again, a historic low of solar activity combined with a volcanic winter event.
Don't be surprised if the largest, hottest object in our neighborhood has an effect on the entire planet.
I know somehow this is Obamas fault!
Of course you are from Texas..The Pakistan of the US.
how can it be the Pakistan of the USA if it has the second largest economy in the US?
Also, you 2012 people need to do some reading, the solar maximum won't occur until well within 2013. That theory is no longer part of your scenario, buddies.
You do realize that 2013 is only about a week after the "end" of the Mayan calendar right? 😉
Finished my armageddon shelter last month. Tunneled down 35 feet into an old abandoned coal mine shaft. God bless those CO2 emitting fools for prepping my shelter 75 years ago.
The sun will kill us. ive dreampt it and already died. it will be night time in the US but the flare will hit us still. in the dream it was summer so im going to say when venus is in transit on june 17 next year.
The Tea Party want to send a manned space craft to the Sun. When I asked how can you do that without burning up, the response was "we are going at night".
I hope you're on it.
LMFAO!!
GOOD ONE!
ROFL
the sun will swallow up the Earth when it becomes a red giant.
Only if you're on a rollercoaster. I can't believe it's not duck!
Yes, it will probably shrink it more, causing you to have to go out and buy an even larger SUV or faster sports car to compensate for your lack of manhood.(not to mention intelligence!)
Knowing
I hope so....I'm tired of wondering if it's in.
Ha ha ha, thanks for my laugh of the day!
So, will you be stopping by at the usual time?
Whats a peinus?
Can we put Bush there?? I gezz its not enough as a punishment for putting as into this economic crisis. ..
pls visit–> coolcent .com
dang libtards are stupid
I HAVE A QUESTION!>>> If it takes light years for the suns rays to get to earth how come it only takes days for the energy from sun storms to get to earth?
It only takes 11 minutes for the sun's energy to get to Earth
8 actually.
It takes light only 8-1/2 minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth. Solar storms are particles (massive objects) and take several days to reach us.
It takes 8 minutes for light leaving the sun to reach earth.
I counted 20 minutes...then I opened my eyes.....
Give me your full address incl. glalaxy you are in?
It only takes 8 minutes for light to get from the Sun to the Earth. You are thinking of the distances to other stars....not to our Sun. In fact, it also takes longer for solar flares to get to Earth, than light from the Sun does, because the charged particles from the flare travel much slower than the speed of light, and they have to deal with the magnetic fields in the solar system from the Sun, so they also don't go in a straight line.
it only takes a few minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth, not light years
The light from our Sun only takes about 8 minutes to get here. You're thinking about light from other suns, in other systems, the closest of which is Alpha Centauri – – about 4.37 light years away.
What are you talking about? It only takes 8 minutes for sun's rays to get to Earth, not Light years. You could say it takes 8 light minutes for them to get to earth.
These solar storms travel slower than light, hence why it takes days for them to reach The Earth.
No, you couldn't. Because again, a light anything is the the distance light travels in that period of time. A light fortnight, would be the distance light travels in 2 weeks. A light second is the distance light travels in a second (186,282 miles, for the record). The earth is 8 light minutes from the sun. The star Betelgeuse, is about 300 light years from earth. Right now, voyager 1 is about 14 light HOURS from earth.
Lightyears?
Go back to school man. A lightyear is how far light travels in one year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, meaning you've got about 11 minutes for light to get 93 million miles (from sun to Earth). It also means that matter ejected from the flare takes a few days, given that it's probably traveling at a much lower speed.
Sorry, that should be 8.3 minutes (calculator malfunction).
Sure, blame it on the calculator.
Do the math, please: 93 million miles / 186,282 mi/sec / 60 sec = 8.32 minutes, for crying out loud!
Read the extra comment.
Operator malfunction more likely.
It takes about 8 minutes for the sun's light to reach the earth.
It only takes 8 minutes for the light and heat from the sun to reach Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in one year, or 9.4605284 × 10^15 meters. The sun is only 150 million km from the earth.
That really clears things up.
You're an idiot! It only takes a couple of minutes for light to get from the Sun to the Earth.
The light from the sun takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds to reach the earth. the sun is 93 million miles distant from the earth. just divide 93 million by the speed of light (186,200 miles /second) and you get the time in seconds for light to travel from the sun to the earth. About 499.5 seconds.
Let's see, how many days is that?
.............Because it takes about 8 minutes for sunlight to reach earth
F'ing idiot. A light year is a measure of DISTANCE, NOT TIME. 1 light year= the distance light travels in one year.
Learn2space
Because they're directly proportional, it can be used either way, like matter and energy are the same thing, just different sides of the coin. 93 million miles can be equivalently stated as 8.32 light-minutes, so it's a distance AND a time.
Are you allowed to vote and reproduce? I thought so. Now I know why the U.S. Congress is full of idiots.
How many of you idiots are going to give the same answer?? Geez, we get it.
Actually it takes a matter of minutes, around 7-8 for light leaving our sun to reach Earth. Also, "light years" is a term used to measure distance, not time. It is the distance light, traveling at approximiately 185,000 miles/second, travels in a year. I hope the solar flare does not further disrupt the electrical activity in your feable little mind.
actually it's 8.4 minutes
If the sun went supernova, we'd all be dead in less than 10 minutes or a 'blink of an eye'
The sun is not large enough to go supernova, or even plain nova. Worry about Sirius at 6 ly distance, a binary that WILL go supernova eventually.
How many times can your eye blink in 10 minutes? Poor analogy unless you used the word 'relatively' as in 'relatively the blink of an eye'....you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed, are you?
Light years are a measure of distance, not time.
Nah, time is measured in eye blinks...
It takes 8 1/2 minutes for electromagnetic energy from the sun to reach Earth, x-rays, light, radio waves, etc.
PARTICLES, such as helium nuclei, protons and electrons have mass, hence are slower than light by far. MOST CME's take 3-4 days to reach the Earth, though some REALLY STRONG ones hit at day one or two from the ejection.
All particles strike the Earth's magnetic field, distorting it, which induce electrical currents in long conductors, such as telephone lines, power lines and long wire antennae.
The particles then follow the Earth's magnetic field lines, some of them actually making it to the upper atmosphere, which ionizes as the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, aka the Northern Lights and Southern Lights.
The Earth's magnetic field stretches behind the planet (the side opposite the sun) until it "snaps" and reconnects, generating massive geomagnetic storms, which can damage electrical equipment as well as the initial impulse of the "impact".
Satellites are in grave danger for significant CME events and the astronauts in the ISS are in significant danger during a significant CME, not to mention the initial x-ray event common with a flare and CME.
NOAA has a mailing list with solar weather and CME impact predictions, when one strikes.
We had one x-ray event this morning at 08:12 GMT.
Wow, matt, looks like you got more answers than you wanted. Thanks for asking, though . . . these were some fun posts!
Ahhh, we're all going to die!!!! Someone get me out of this lunatic's car!!!!
Finally a problem we cannot blame on the clowns in Washington ...
I still blame Bush and Chaney...
GOOD ONE!
Bush is too stupid. And who's Chaney?
Cheney?
Oh, i am sure some moron will still try to point fingers and blame them..... oh well, right?? LOL
Remember this post and please answer people who complain about NASA budgets: we need this science. We need NASA. Not only does NASA offer tens of thousands of really great jobs for highly skilled people, exploitation of planetary science also gives us tremendous direct benefits to every person living in this country.
I dunno. To me it looks like Virgin Galactic will get at least sub orbital as safely and much cheaper than NASA ever dreamed of. With the economic situation being what it is, I can't see government taking us much further into space. I am not a corporatist by any means but it looks like the private sector will be getting further into space than NASA in years to come. There are just too many potential resources out there. As soon as they find oil on the moon, you can bet Chaney will crawl out of his crypt and declare war on it.
Yeah, Virgin Atlantic can quickly and safely get to orbit with 1/10th of the payload as those shuttles, so it's FAR more useful! Why, they'll be able to loft golf balls into orbit!
OK. Contest. Put eight people in a spacecraft and lift them into zero/microgravity environment. Winner of contest is the one who can do it safely with the lowest cost. I really don't think NASA has a chance. As for big payloads, just give it time, It took NASA a lot of bucks just to get that first orbit back in the 60's. And yes, I realize that the private sector is standing on the shoulders of NASA engineering giants. NASA just needs to look at something more efficient than huge LOX boosters. Any retreat from space at this juncture in time is not a good idea but I will be VERY impressed when NASA can lift at the same or lower costs.
I am so fascinated by the solar storms. It is fascinating what electrical anomolies occur when these massive nucular explosions travel through space at a warp speed, and impact the fragile magnetic shell around us. Very, very exciting. perhaps a 2012 type apocolypse will be the result of massive solar flarea as well..love it.
nuclear.......okay, I was driving when I posted...sorry spell checker fans I am an awful person.
Why are you posting comments while you are driving? I hope you end up in a terrible accident. You won't care about spell check when you're dead, or if you kill someone else.
Good idea, read stories and post comments while driving. Won't be too worried about your spelling when you kill someone.
You're not awful because you miss-typed, you're awful because you text while driving.
He's an awful person for reading CNN
Why on earth would you admint to posting while driving. Remind to NEVER drive anywhere near you- I value my life and the lives around me too much to be in danager as a result of your sheer stupidity.
Maybe he was at a red light?
... And of course, you all know exactly what his environment was when he posted, whether he was at a traffic light or even if he was in traffic at all?
Not one to normally White Knight here, but all you Nanny State Prudes here need to just drop dead already, since you're so convinced everything and anything is such a huge danger that must be regulated and/or abolished. At least we won't hear your whining and have your fingers wagging in our faces. Of course, your survivors will find something to blame your death on, because it couldn't be because your time sucking oxygen on this planet is done.
U MAD BRO?
ME, I never suggested that he be regulated.
Frankly, if an idiot is texting while driving and hits my car, they're dead. The accident will break their neck.
That will be my explanation for what happened to them...
Hold up, bro, a bunch of self-righteous a$$holes want to ignore anything to do with your post in favor of chastising you for something they also do on a reg. basis because they've got the attnetion span of squirrels.
Where are you, exactly? Assume somewhere in CA. Me, too. Just let me know which roads to avoid today, please.
when will we realize that our wasteful resources are having an effect on our environment and global warming is affecting the sun as well now!!!
orion, my hope is you are being sarcastic, otherwise that is one of the most ludicrous statements I have ever read. Earth's global warming is now impacting the sun...good grief.
Global warming is not affecting the sun! LMAO!
@orion. global warming has no effect whatsoever on the sun. To think that our insignificant planet's weather patterns can affect the surface of the sun is ridiculous. This is a natural cycle of activity that the sun goes into every 11 years roughly and we are just moving into a new solar cycle. This has been going since the earth was formed so to say that the sun is the only thing affecting global warming is naive and an attempt to overlook man's very real impact on this planet.
@orion, you are seriously retarded! nothing we ever do here on EARTH will ever affect the sun....93 MILLION MILES AWAY. go back living in your gay prius you stupid hippie!
TIMMY I THOUGHT YOU WERE AT THE LIBRARY STUDYING; NOT BEING A D!CK ON THE INTERNETS AGAIN LIKE WE AGREED
I couldn't help it. =[
well next time you want to say something...first, take off the tin foil cap...second, climb down from your treehouse....third, go to the nearest highway and play in oncoming traffic and get the thoughts from the first 'eco-friendly' car you see.
Is this a failed joke or a successful demonstration of your stupidity ? nothing on this earth can possibly affect the sun in any way.
wow, a lot of angry people on what it should have been just an LMAO or LOL. =]
There is so much stupidity on the internet that people can hardly be blamed for failing to get sarcasm. Or in other words:
"Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody extremism in such a way that it won't be mistaken for the real thing"
Winking smilies also also often used by jaded nihilistic sociopaths.
Well, _I_ laughed. Just goes to show how many stupid people there are out there with a computer and no sense of humor.
I agree – people need to chill........it was hilarious though!!!
Actually its the Tea Baggers and their unbending stance on the debt limit and budget that are causing the sun to act up..........
Holy sh*t, are you people all THAT stupid to realize he was being sarcastic?
lol... apparently not.
This entire thread is an embarrassment to the human race. Orion...thank you for the laugh. Everyone else...thank you for making me laugh even harder. Hey Orion, next time, follow it up R E A L L Y slowly with, "I was joking, you retarded d-bags"
lol... i jotted this down as an advice.
HOW MANY TIMES MUST I APOLOGIZE?! OK, look, I'll apologize again. I was taking readings inside of Mercury's orbit and shouldn't have ate those beans.
Look, it happens, OK? Sorry all that methane ionized and created that ionic channel, who knew a sunspot pair was going to be in range of flatulenium?
SORRY ALREADY!
Bah the sun is weenie. Where is that nearby GRB that will take out our ozone layer which might be what killed %95 of all life 250 million years ago.
GRB has no effect on Ozone. It causes cell death in all organic molecules in its path, so possibly wiped out all life on one side of the planet 250 million years ago. No damage to Ozone though.
cells are made of molecules not vice versa....
@Malkntnt – please read your headline out loud! .... the current headline for this story is not sensationalized – "could" being the operative word.... headlines don't have to necessarily be grammatically correct sentences....
I meant geothermal of course...geez
Scott, I can guarantee that the Sun is the cause of MOST of the global warming (the rest comes from thermodynamic activity.) It's a matter of what man does that prevents that heat from escaping back into space.
It's long been ascertained that global warming is NOT being caused by solar forcing. Solar output has remained where it HAS been.
They're considering a few other factors, to include orbital elements that cause the cycles of warming and cooling, along with greenhouse gas emissions from Earth itself and aerosol production from natural disasters. Add on top, human contribution, the picture gains a LOT of elements. The solar output NOT being one of the elements, as it's been relatively static in output since life has been on Earth.
I wonder how urANUS feels about this...
man i dont believe non this. white ppl be lyin to us. they just wants our $$$. im not payin for this "EXPLOSIONS" i not buyin this. its all said to trick us. they be hurting us. its wrong. they want to take our stuff. well i say never again!!!
Wow. What a well educationed response.
By the way, my statement is called "sarcasm". It is when you said the opposite of what you mean.
Take an english class.
I meant 'educated'. See I can't spell!!! haha
English Spoken Here - or are you some kind of cheap-shot shill?
The US hasn't spoken English in nearly two centuries. We speak American.
I happen to be fluent in American AND in English, courtesy of decades of working with the US Department of Defence, largely wearing the colour green. 😉
Department of Defense*
I can't believe you saw through our clever ruse! Yes, we DID make up this story to take black people's money because this article obviously tells black people to pay us for this information or for protection.
In all seriousness, are you really so eager to play the race card that you blame the effects of solar flares on white people?
ha ha...thats funny. are you kin to kanye west? lol
The sun is so dirty. Giving it to the whole solar system at once. I just wish my mom wasn't so fat.
Quick! Let's blame this on Obama!!! (sarcasm)
And if you're a Liberal, blame Bush. See? Both sides like to play the blame game.
too bad there's no 'like' button
The headline should read: "Solar explosions could HAVE AN impact Earth" the way it's worded now, it sounds like they will IMPACT (as in come into contact with) the earth. Obviously that would be an end of life as we know it type of moment. PLEASE stop the sensationalism!!! We're getting really tired of it.
Come on dude, the solar wind 'comes in contact with the earth' all the time; that's why there are auroras, among other things. Maybe the 'sensationalism' is in your head, hmm?
WE or YOU?
Most people do not understand solar science, so it is easy to see how that headline may lead some folks to believe that a pyroclastic event (of Mayan proportions) was approaching Earth. I printed out the page – superimposed an image of a man with an umbrella – and taped it to my office door (for laughs, of course).
ScienceGod, even scientists don't quite understand solar science, as it's a field STILL in its infancy.
They STILL haven't fully worked out WHY the corona is hotter than the "surface" of the sun.
Solar seismology HAS opened up great amounts of knowledge about the interior of the sun though.
How else do you think they are going to get people to click a science article? 😉
So let's get this straight. The Sun is capable of launching energy at us that could cripple our electronics, and in the past has caused crude electrical devices to malfunction and even cause fires. Yet people still don't think the Sun's activity has anything to do with global warming???
Actually Scott, read Orion's post. Apparently the Earth's global warming is sucking the energy from the sun.
to whit, he admitted a poorly executed bid for sarcasm. Nice post, though. Orion's post is a keeper too.
Yes the sun has magnetic storms which can lead to earthquakes volcanos and animal rage.
But for now the media just needs you to know about electronic toys and intense solar heat-Dallas.
Watch out – the Mayans were way ahead of the curve and highly advanced in star reading.
From now to late 2012 is the solar max...storms a brewing.
Oh yes...the Mayans. They were way ahead of us...they were so busy killing each other in mass sacrifices that they failed to invent telescopes or gunpowder (which they definitely could have used when whitey came along with wheels, guns and starcharts.
Mayans are spotlighted by historians for no other reason than political correctness. Historically, their civilization was humiliated by Europe.
"never shocked"
you must wear YOUR color on your sleeve!
Scott is one of those nitwits who makes broad statements about what scientists are saying, without bothering to check what scientists are ACTUALLY saying.
Global warming theory does NOT dismiss the effect of sun cycles. In fact, it incorporates it, but you wouldn't know that, because you have no interest in learning about it. You only want to learn JUST enough to dismiss it in your mind, and then stop.
Except that solar forcing has been discredited as a contribution to global warming. Solar output has been remarkably stable, with very little increases or decreases in output.
That said, the sun IS a measurable amount warmer when there are large numbers of sunspots, but the extra heat received by the Earth is miniscule.
The sun has been steady for a very, very long time. These flares are cyclical. The sun is not, so far as we know, becoming hotter, so no, the sun is not to blame for global warming. The depletion of our Ozone layer and the buildup of pollutants in our atmosphere are to blame for that.
Maybe Hugh Hefner can take a lesson from the Sun.
Recurring flare- ups ? Lol