Sunspot Grows to 20 Times Size of Earth

[GHOSTDANCER]

A sunspot group aimed squarely at Earth has grown to 20 times the size of our planet and has the potential to unleash a major solar storm.

The amorphous mix of spots, together called Number 652, has been rotating across the Sun and growing for several days. On Friday, it sat at the center of the solar disk.

Sunspots are areas of intense magnetic energy, cooler and darker than the surrounding surface of the thermonuclear furnace. Sometimes the magnetic fields let loose and huge amounts of radiation and charged particles are hurled into space.

<http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/hugesunspots_040723.html>

Could get a little bumpy......

[puerco-bellies]

1. The guys on the Space Station should look into a lead cod-piece n/t

[truthisfreedom]

2. weird and scary. seems like we've seen a lot more unusual activity

coming from the sun over the last few years than i remember before.

[onehandle]

17. Common. Nothing to worry about.

The sun will outlive the human race. And the next sentient creatures as well.

My money is on either sharks or cockroaches.

Maybe gerbils.

[KansDem]

59. Damn!!! "Sharks or cockroaches..."

That means the Republicans will outlive us all!

Would they change their name to "Shockroaches?"

[indigobusiness]

70. It might do you in, and soon...that's the point. (cool pic)

[lil-petunia]

36. it is cyclical, not scary. well, scary, too.

Because the dinos did not have satellites controlling most communications, TV, security, etc. like we do.

They may have to shut them down pronto. Like, right before 11/2/2004.

you know, solar terrorists.

[Sweatynipples]

48. scary?

There should not be any ounce of fear in your body caused by solar flare activity. The spots are following the Maunder's Butterfly diagram perfectly. The sun has about 5 billion more years left before it grows into a red giant, swallows the earth and neighboring planets and then shrinks into a white dwarf. Its all part of its 10 billion year life cycle for a G class star. How do we know the fate of the sun?.. because we have billions of other stars to look at, analyze and draw conclusions.

[Nihil]

55. Nope, I'm not scared of the red giant either

> Its all part of its 10 billion year life cycle for a G class star.
> How do we know the fate of the sun?.. because we have billions of
> other stars to look at, analyze and draw conclusions.

Hmm ... observing the nearest star for a few centuries (or even a few
millenia if you're prepared to accept the occasional ancient record)
does not give too good a baseline for extrapolation to a "10 billion
year" range.

The error bars get a bit on the long side. The closeness of the fit of
data to hypothesis tends to slacken too. Still, the general idea is ok
and, on the scale of millions of years, too far away to worry about.

The unknown bit is the extent of the effect when sunspot maxima (due in
another 5 years or so?) coincides with a reducing magnetic field (on its
way down now at an increasing rate).

This isn't out of superstition, correlation with ancient prophecy or the
result of a vision. It is simply because such an event hasn't happened
recently enough that we have good data on it.

And as more of our everyday life depends upon fast global communication
(especially using satellites), the impact on our lives is yet to be
determined.

Nihil

[Scooter24]

56. And hopefully...

by then we would have evolved enough to master space travel...

Pick up and move...to a nice planet of our choosing..hehe

[indigobusiness]

71. Sweaty nipples are scary... An errupting sun is something to respect.

Only a fool doesn't.

[madinmaryland]

3. Did this warning come from

our esteemed Homeland Security Department? And what color is that warning?

As an electrical engineer, I want to know if they have been using the right hand rule on this one.

:think:

[TrogL]

4. Check this out

[GHOSTDANCER]

7. I'm no Expert but The sun looks upset..........

<http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/>

[Enraged_Ape]

34. That damn Dubya has even the sun mad at him

Is there anyone in the solar system he hasn't pissed off?

[daleo]

25. Looks like some nice magnetic field lines there

Around the bright sunspot in the centre, at about 1:30. Is this the right terminology? I thought sunspots were actually darker and cooler than the surrounding solar disk. Perhaps flare or solar prominence would be more descriptive.

There seems to be something mighty impressive on the right hand limb as well.

"It's looks like its going to be another hot day here on the surface of the sun, Bernie." (Beavis and Butthead, spoofing CNN).

[Joanne98]

42. Oh no. The sun has a hole in it. Send it to China. Quick.

Because we can't fix it. We out-sourced all our technology.

[TrogL]

45. Note, this today's picture, no matter what "today" is

The day this was posted, the sunspots were staring straight at us.

[The Night Owl]

5. Thank god the amorphous mix of spots was not called Number 666

That would be funny.

[7th_Sephiroth]

6. i built a charger particle gun once

russia claimed it was a meteor strike

[InkAddict]

26. Did you sell it to the arms dealer for

Marvin the Martian's earthling assimilation project??? LOL

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER - i need something smaller and more effective than a SuperSoaker water gun that doesn't do concealed carry well.

[JayS]

8. Any ideas as to what could cause a visible to the eye black...

...spot on the sun? It was visible from sunrise until the sun got too bright to look at, about ten minutes in all. It was not a "normal" cloud as they were passing east to west. It was too big to be a satellite. Was this just a "freak" cloud?

[chascarrillo]

9. Maybe you should stop staring at the sun

Really, I can't make any sense of this comment at all.

[JayS]

12. It was low enough on the horizon for it to be "cool" enough to...

...look at. What don't you understand about my post?

[DoktorGreg]

27. Uh, no it wasnt....

First off, looking at the sun causes instant and permanent damage. Your eye has no pain receptors, so you probably were not aware of the damage you were doing.

Secondly, Its not the visible spectrum that causes the damage, its the ultraviolet rays. Just a guess here, but you cant see into the untraviolet spectrum to see if the sun was "cool" at that frequency.

If you want to look at the sun, I sugest a nice pair of welders goggles.

[loudsue]

29. DoktorGreg....you might want to tell hundreds of Native Americans

....Sun Dancers that. They've been doing it every year for years on end...looking into the Sun as they Dance. There are a whole lot of Native Americans who can still see! Even some of us blue-eyed folks.

:kick:

[DoktorGreg]

30. Tell It to the doctors, the damage is called Solar Retinopathy

http://www.eyecare-information-service.org.uk/pages/information/disorders/solarret.htm

You know that big dim spot you had right after you stared at the sun? Its permanent. You learn to live with with, its so subtle you dont even know its there, but it still is. Go ahead, keep staring at the sun without protection, eventually you will be blind. There is an event where in West Virginia where people jump off a bridge every year. The catch is, they use protection.

[Ferretherder]

33. Well, all I know is, when I was a child...

...I would stare at the sun until all I could see was a huge, pulsing blue orb - maybe 30 to 40 seconds straight - and would do this literally ALL of the time. Many years later, when having my eyes checked for a truck-driving physical, I read all of the lines on the chart, then read the tiny little info at the bottom of the chart that said who had printed it!

I'm not disputing your claims of eye damage from looking directly at the sun, only suggesting that it may affect different people in different ways.

[DoktorGreg]

40. This post is an internet first

Ya'll were right, and I was wrong.

Granted the whole problem is a little more complex. Stare at the sun and it ~might~ do damage. It depends on a lot of things. Some people are more sensitive than others. It is a little safer during sunset.

I however, will continue to advise people that staring at the sun is probably not the brightest thing to do.

[JayS]

61. How good are UV/A and UV/B camera filters for observing...

...the sun when it first rises or before it sets? I don't want to dickey with UV rays if I don't have to.

On a side note, I have heard that sunglasses without sufficient UV blockers are bad news as your eyes think the day is darker than it really is and open the irises to more UV rays than would otherwise be the case.

[Donkeyboy75]

66. That is absolutely true.

Also, a fraction of the sun's UV rays can also penetrate clouds.

[indigobusiness]

73. Clouds don't block light in the ultraviolet end of the spectrum

That's why you can sunburn on overcast days.

[wordout]

76. looks like some good eatin' !

NASA To Study Man Who Survives On Liquids And Sunlight

one big supermarket of nourishment

Delhi - Jun 30, 2003

An Indian man, who claims to have survived only on liquids and sunlight for eight years, has been invited by NASA to show them how he does it.

Hira Ratan Manek - also known as Hirachand - a 64-year-old mechanical engineer who lives in the southern state of Kerala, apparently started disliking food in 1992, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

In 1995, he went on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas and stopped eating completely on his return.

His wife, Vimla, said: "Every evening he looks at the sun for one hour without batting an eyelid. It is his main food. Occasionally he takes coffee, tea or some other liquid."

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/food-03d.html

[Occulus]

10. Sunspots.

Big ones.

[JayS]

13. Seriously? I have never heard of them actually being visible...

...to the naked eye.

[onehandle]

15. Very often, really.

I've seen them lots of times when the sun was behind low and thick, but mostly transparent clouds.

A pinhole in a piece of paper held out at an angle (flat side) to the sun, will project an image on another piece of paper of the sun. Do not look through the paper at the sun.

[JayS]

16. Thanks! I'll take my camera with me next time I am out at sunrise.

It was so highly visible that I am surprised I have not noticed this before.

[onehandle]

18. Camera. Er... you better read this. How to view sun...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/solar_eclipse_view.html

[GHOSTDANCER]

23. lol.....

Don't Look into the light carolanne!!!!! Carolanne can you hear me?? Carolanne? MOMMY????................... MOMMY??????

[JayS]

41. I'll do it when the sun is still "cool" (dark red to dark orange) as...

...I think the lens on my camera would make things a little on the warm side. :)

[theHandpuppet]

31. It was probably a signal that your retinas were being fried

Never, EVER, look at the sun without the proper eye protection or equipment -- and that means more than a pair of Ray-Bans!

[DoYouEverWonder]

32. When did you see this black spot?

If it was at the beginning of June, it was probably the Venus transit.

[FlaGranny]

35. Many years ago on a

day that the sky was covered with clouds just the right thickness to look comfortably at the sun and see the entire disk, I saw a black spot on the sun's surface. It was either a sun spot OR I guess it could have been Mercury, but I think it was too large to be Mercury or Venus. So, yes, if the conditions are right or you have a sun filter, you can see dark spots on the sun (when they are present and large enough, of course).

[ze_dscherman]

37. The spot has been visible to the bare eye since several days

Right at sunset, it usually is o.K. to look at the sun, but you better be very cautious. If you look directly into the sun at it may cause retinal burns. Very bad. That's why looking at the sun at sunrise is especially dangerous - it soon gets to bright. Go buy a decent astronomical filter, if you want to look at the sun - your eyesight is very valuable.

[stickdog]

11. Cool Image

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/

[GHOSTDANCER]

14. Love that caption on that photo.....

"Sputtering like a fuse" real assuring???

[cliss]

21. Wow. Cool photo. I'd say the sun looks pissed.

Now last summer, when he had a series of solar flares, they kept warning that cell phones could go dead, and that our Internet connections could fail.

I do not, however, recall seeing anything like this last summer. I'm sure it's here in the archives under LBN. I remember following the story.

Nothing like this, though. What are the possible effects if this does come blasting toward us? drought?

[homelandpunk]

52. I know this is gonna sound strange, but it looks like Cheney.

See the nose and the eyes, and the sneer?

[Longhorn79]

19. This reminds me of that James Michener book 'Space'

where the astronaut who lands on the moon gets smashed by the intense radiation from a sunspot re-fusioning. It's one of my top five books.

[TrogL]

20. Michener is full of shit

It would take weeks to die from exposure.

[Longhorn79]

24. Not the kind of exposure his character was subject to

first of all, it was fiction. Second, it was easily reproducible fiction. A very large flare on the sun's surface could definitely produce deadly radiation for the ISS crew. NASA has studied this extensively and designed modules for this in mind.

[DrWeird]

63. Then there's Alaska...

where the gold forms via fusion when the earth is formed.

[The Zanti Regent]

22. Is it headed for Crawford, TX?

hoping against hope...

[shraby]

28. Last year's sunspots and

the one this year that is unusually large is not the norm. Sunspots tend to run in 11 year cycles which was supposed to be going into the quiet phase either last year or the year before. They will knock out satellite communications and also cause gorgeous aurora borealis. If this one comes zooming at us, watch for aurora a night or so later.

[ze_dscherman]

38. This sunspot already has caused some weak auroras on July 22nd

Some more aurora activity within the next two days is possible, but don't expect something big.
Take a look at http://www.spaceweather.com. Higly recommended site.

[midwayer]

43. Cool sight...thanks (eom)

[midwayer]

44. And site too! )eom_

[seemslikeadream]

39. INVISIBLE SUN

I don't want to spend the rest of my life
Looking at the barrel of an armalite
I don't want to spend the rest of my days
Keeping out of trouble like the soldiers say
I don't want to spend my time in hell
Looking at the walls of a prison cell
I don't ever want to play the part
Of a statistic on a government chart

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day's done

It's dark all day and it glows all night
Factory smoke and acetylene light
I face the day with me head caved in
Looking like something that the cat brought in

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day's done

And they're only going to change this place
By killing everybody in the human race
They would kill me for a cigarette
But I don't even wanna die just yet

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day's done

sting

[iamjoy]

50. That's My Soul Up There

There's a little black spot on the sun today
It's the same old thing as yesterday...

There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread

King of Pain
Police

[Wilber_Stool]

46. Todays Sun pic.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Occulus]

67. Black Hole Sun

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[montana_hazeleyes]

47. Just looking at these pictures of the sun

just shows how small we really are.

[JayS]

75. That is true. I'm trying to work out a little demonstration on...

...this event for some elementary school kiddies.

[WillyT]

49. Black Hole Sun... Wontcha Come... Wontcha Come...

:scared:

[homelandpunk]

51. Clinton had an erection and caused this darkness on the sun.

What, you doubt this?

[SayitAintSo]

60. You just made me almost wet myself ....

I'm DU'ing while on a conference call ... ALmost lost it ....LOL ( in silent ...:) )


On edit ... bad spelling

[GeneratorOfHeat]

53. How did Bush manage to do this one?

Is there nothing he has not messed up?

[Seabiscuit]

54. Is this what Rove had in mind

when he was thinking of ways to disrupt the Nov. election? Did they secretly send a pile of nuclear warheads into the sun? Will it grow big enough by Nov. to disrupt not only satellites but all the Diebold machines, automatically changing all votes for for Kerry to votes fo Bush? :silly:

[Minstrel Boy]

57. an interesting site:

Real-time modeling of the Earth's bow shock and magnetopause with respect to the solar wind:
http://pixie.spasci.com/DynMod/

Hang in there, magnetic field! You can do it!

[bikebloke]

58. Shortwave Radio Static

I thought something was going on with the Sun. I listen to short wave radio. Whenever there's an increase of solar activity, there will be a lot of static interference. At least nowdays if I miss something, I can always track down the broadcast on the Internet.

[Kitsune]

62. Hmmm. Could this be why Sirus radio has been screwy the last few days? *nt

[ze_dscherman]

64. Aurora pictures from the last few days

Enjoy these: http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/aurora/gallery_01jul04_page5.htm

[DrWeird]

65. And why is this news?

First off, sunspots routinely grow much larger then Earth. And they usually occur in pairs. This looks like two or three pairs grouped together.

Secondly, sunspots and CME's are two different phenomenon.

And lastly, if it was pointed at the Earth four days ago (notice the date), it wouldn't be pointed at the Earth now. Since as Galiileo showed 400 years ago, the sun rotates.

[indigobusiness]

68. Why is this news?...What a weird question.

Sunspots and CME's (sic) are not different phenomenon (sic). They are different phenaomena. But inextricably linked. They are joined at the hip, coronal mass ejections are born in sunspots.

The radiation that has bombarded the Earth recently and reached the surface has been off the charts due to magnetic field anomalies and solar ejecta.

Here is real time data:







http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x11611

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x11573

on edit-

The sun's roatation is a 25 day cycle. The huge sunspot that is the major concern will be back around, soon. But it doesn't need to pointed directly at us to do us harm.

[ze_dscherman]

72. It is not pointed directly towards earth anymore, but

... has still potential to cause severe CMEs that may reach earth. It has not rotated over the suns western limb yet - the sun rotates, but not very fast. Also, sunspots and CME's are closely related phenomena.

The recent sunspot has already caused a severe G4 magnetic storm, look at www.spaceweather.com for information and pictures. Currently it looks like it has been weakened a bit - bad for me, because it's becoming dark in Germany, and only a couple of hours ago we had incredible magnetic storms. There is still a probability of 40% for severe magnetic storms even in mid latitudes within the next 24 hours.

It is also news because there is a risk that magnetic storms may damage satellites power grids.

Please get informed before you post.

[killbotfactory]

69. Cheney:" Weakness invites sun spots."

"Only Bush can save us from the impending doom of our sun turning into a red giant and enveloping the Earth."

[indigobusiness]

74. "Red Giant"?

Shove it.