At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country?
(Sorry)
What the sun is doing to the earth right now:
(Screenshot of – what else? – a SolarBalls video)
Anyway. I was afraid we wouldn’t get a cool aurora show here because 1) it was kind of cloudy, 2) it seemed like everyone else in the world was already posting pictures of their light shows and we were still in complete darkness, and 3) that would just be my luck.
However, Nate picked the perfect time for us to go outside and we caught the lights just as they started to appear.
I took 100 pictures, but here are my favorite five:
This was my first time seeing the northern lights. WOO!
This Week’s Science Blog: Remember When I Used to do a Weekly Science Blog?
SUN NEWS!
According to research at the University of Warwick, the sun may have the potential to superflare. What’s a superflare? It’s supercool. Superflares are like solar flares, only thousands of times more powerful. According to the lead researcher at Warwick, Chloe Pugh, if the sun were to superflare, pretty much all of earth’s communications and energy systems could fail. Radio signals disabled, huge blackouts, all that fun stuff. But according to Pugh, the conditions needed for a superflare are extremely unlikely to occur on the sun.
But how did they actually figure out that it is possible for the sun to superflare? Using NASA’s Kepler space telescope, the researchers found a binary star, KIC9655129, which has been shown to superflare. The researchers suggest that due to the similarities between the sun’s solar flares and the superflares of KIC9655129, the underlying physics of both phenomena may be the same.
Cool!
Valentine’s Day Solar Flare Massacre
OH SHIT SOLAR FLARE TIME GUYS.
(Edit: The article posted in here was published tomorrow; I just included it because apparently a lot of people are a day behind on this)
http://www.universetoday.com/83392/sun-erupts-with-enormous-x2-solar-flare/
Yesterday the sun decided to wish the universe a belated “happy Valentine’s Day!” by throwing out one of the largest solar flares since 2006 (the year I graduated high school!).
I think our awesome star is starting to rev up for its solar symphony that’s coming up in the next two years. Better make good use of that Blackberry/iPhone/3G network while it’s still in operation; even this single flare is expected to cause minor issues over the next few days.
Oh my.
We are so fucked.
Today’s song: Enjoy the Ride (feat. Judy Tzuke) by Morcheeba
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