Sunday, March 30, 2014

Slip-Sliding Away: Solar Flare’s Magnetic Lines Go For A Loop In This Video

Slip-Sliding Away: Solar Flare’s Magnetic Lines Go For A Loop In This Video:



When will the next big solar flare occur? How much damage could it cause to power lines and satellites? These are important questions for those looking to protect our infrastructure, but there’s still a lot we need to figure out concerning space weather.

The video above, however, shows magnetic lines weaving together from the surface of the Sun in 2012, eventually creating an eruption that was 35 times our planet’s size and sending out a surge of energy. It’s these energetic flares that can hit Earth’s atmosphere and cause auroras and power surges.

While models of this have been made before, this is the first time the phenomenon was caught in action. Scientists saw it using NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

(...)
Read the rest of Slip-Sliding Away: Solar Flare’s Magnetic Lines Go For A Loop In This Video (261 words)


© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. |
Permalink |
No comment |


Post tags: , , ,


Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

No comments:

Post a Comment