Coronal mass ejection. 50-50 chance it's heading our way!
http://www.spaceweather.com/

Might be the first time I've ever agreed with you (friendly grin, and the hoist of a drink of your choice.)

Myself, I'm a modern Antaeus; my feet shall never leave the nurturing soil of the earth (modulo occasional business flights...)

I have the greatest admiration for the real astronauts, as I also do for deep-sea divers, and fire-fighters, and air-sea rescue personnel, and mountain-rescue personnel, and.... Even our own mother earth has no few environments that are wholly hostile to us, and yet we, as an adventurous species, will go there anyway.

From Jason to Magellan to Armstrong, the best and bravest have gone out into the heaving main to bring back knowledge. I couldn't survive ten minutes in their world, and that's only a small part of why they are my heroes.

Silas

I’m the opposite of Silas.

I would gladly go up there (or anywhere) for adventure. Giant Planet Devouring Space Goats be dammed!

To my mind, the biggest drawback to being an astronaut would be the journalists who compose dorky headlines like, "Astronauts test drive first railroad in space", hyuk hyuk hyuk.

:: rolleyes ::

Can't get NO respect.

Compared to media headline writers, a super-duper solar flare would be a Sunday School picnic, I'm thinking. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

The world needs both you guys - The "Silases" to dream up the missions and get the science done -- and the "Space Banditos" to go there, and lead the way! (Occasionally in history you'll find someone who was also a combination of both.) [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

But - I do have some serious "Bad Astronomy" questions pertaining to solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and Astronauts in space. (Sorry, I know this was covered before, somewhere.)

How hazardous is this really? If they're in orbit, and a mass ejection is headed their way, what can they do? Is there a real threat to their lives, or not? If there is a threat, does NASA have contingency plans? (Some Russian Cosmonauts have been on very long orbital missions during periods of strong solar activity -- I think they survived.) I've heard that pilots who regularly fly at high altitude get the equivalent of an extra chest x-ray a year. Is that incorrect? (Maybe more "x rays", but not detrimental to health?)

Chip

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chip on 2002-04-16 00:33 ]</font>

Is a CME a Coronal Mass Ejection (as in some mass is ejected) or is it a Coronal Mass-Ejection? (as in there is a huge amount of 'stuff' ejected)

It's unhyphenated and the update says it's definitely headed for us and will cause aurora April 17th! The same link works for the update: http://www.spaceweather.com/

April 17th? Great, now I know what day we're having a thunderstorm...


-Adam

These people don't worry about an X-class solar flare or a CME.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...atoday/4029890

I have some questions:
1. what is the streak we see in the lower right of the animated SOHO image?

2. There is a bright point of light in the lower left moving in (relatively speaking) NW direction. Is that a planet?

3. Because of the CME, is Sun losing mass? If yes, by how much per year?

I'm not sure what the streak is, but it seems to be in just one frame. It may possibly be some contamination from the spacecraft (thruster firing?)? It seems to be moving too fast to be stuff coming directly from the sun??
The bright light is the comet discussed on the website and the other posting. It'll get closest to the sun tomorrow (4/17)

Oh. This says the streak could well be a cosmic ray. But it's interesting that it points ALMOST directly in line with the sun!
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s218061.htm

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Kierein on 2002-04-16 12:26 ]</font>

Yes, but it's losing even more from the fusion process that's generating the light it's emanating, at least according to this utterly trustworthy astronomer.

__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

The streak could easily be from radiation, as this image indicates.

(from http://galvin.sr.unh.edu/SOHO/SWT98/index.html )

[Image was bigger than I thought, so I changed it to a link]

_________________
"... to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson, Ulysses


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ToSeek on 2002-04-16 12:43 ]</font>

So, is CME the same as solar wind?

Planets are usually marked with a horizontal line, as in this example. Maybe you've discovered a comet! (Though according to this page, it's not going in the right direction for that. So I'm not sure.

__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

[quote]
On 2002-04-16 12:45, SiriMurthy wrote:
I think it's fair to say that the material in a CME becomes part of the solar wind. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get a number on how massive a CME really is. So far I've gotten three contradictory figures for the high end:

10^11 kg - http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~bfite/Spac_project.htm
10^13 kg - http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/lin....html&edu=high
10^14-10^17 kg - http://edmall.gsfc.nasa.gov/inv99Pro....abstract.html

These are big numbers, but then CMEs don't happen that often.

__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

The streak is apparently a "solar energetic particle" that is associated with solar flares and CMEs. Much more energetic that the solar wind, so it is travelling faster than the CME. The CME won't get here until tomorrow, but the SEPs may be hitting the astronauts who are doing EVA now - unless the Earth's magnetic field deflects them.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Kierein on 2002-04-16 13:16 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Kierein on 2002-04-16 13:17 ]</font>

[quote]
On 2002-04-16 12:56, ToSeek wrote:
I don't understand. According to our BA's page on Mass Loss the Sun has a total mass of 2 x 10³⁰ Kilograms. The links above say that the CME is (perhaps) in the order of 10¹¹ to 10¹⁷ Kilograms???!! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]

(I have just taken the minimum and the maximum values from the above links.)

I see. So, generally, the comets go towards the Sun, and it makes sense.

So in this page, am I right in understanding that each single line is a comet? If I am, then what does the "bunch" of black lines represent?

Each black line represents a comet, specifically a Kreutz sungrazer. The other colored lines are different sorts of comets (except the blue ones, which are still Kreutzes except SOHO was tilted in an unusual way).

__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.