Kepler habitable

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Nasa films TWO massive solar eruptions with power to down satellites | Mail Online

Two massive solar eruptions with the power to bring down satellites orbiting Earth have been captured in amazing detail by a NASA space camera.
The stunning video shows an enormous pulse of super-hot plasma - called a solar prominence - bursting from the Sun's surface tens of thousands of miles into space.
That mega burst in the early hours of Friday was followed just four hours later by a second.
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Danger: The massive solar flare, seen bursting from the Sun's surface, left, can play havoc with electrical equipment on Earth
Danger: The massive solar flare, seen bursting from the Sun's surface, left, can play havoc with electrical equipment on Earth

VIDEO: See the Double Prominience Eruptions:  



But scientists were quick to reassure the public that this massive solar flare, which races through space at 900 miles per second, was not on a collision course with us.
Violent solar flares can be powerful enough to destroy satellite equipment as the electrically charged particles bombard delicate circuitry. 
Even weak flares are usually only powerful enough to disrupt radio communications on Earth.
An expert from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which oversees the SDO mission, said in the video's description: 'The expanding particle clouds heading into space do not appear to be Earth-directed'.
He added: 'The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. 
'The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the Sun’s internal dynamo.
Fireball: The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle
Fireball: The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle
'An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.'
Both solar flares - seen as red-glowing looped plasma, a hot gas comprised of electrically charged hydrogen and helium - were so big they completely filled the lens of the high-definition NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Observers noticed a powerful solar flare - registered as an M6-class eruption, a moderate but still intense solar event - erupted last Monday.
The burst of solar energy triggered a spectacular northern lights displays for observers at high latitudes.
The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. The current cycle is called Solar Cycle 24 and is expected to peak in 2013.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2234902/Nasa-films-TWO-massive-solar-eruptions-power-satellites.html#ixzz2DEJUUNnt
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