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Copyright Alan Friedman / avertedimagination.com
Powerful sunspots and gauzy-looking prominences can be seen in Alan Friedman's photo of the sun, shown in hydrogen-alpha wavelengths.
Photographers are having a field day chronicling the hot flashes on our increasingly active sun.
For the past couple of weeks, astronomers have been tracking groups of sunspots as they move across the sun's disk. Those active regions have been shooting off flares and outbursts of electrically charged particles into space — signaling that the sun is ramping up toward the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. Physicists expect that peak, also known as "Solar Max," to come in 2013.
Copyright Alan Friedman / avertedimagination.com
A prominence big enough to engulf our planet loops up from the edge of the sun's disk in this photo by Alan Friedman.
A full frontal view from New York photographer Alan Friedman shows the current activity in detail, as seen in a particular wavelength known as hydrogen-alpha. The colors have been tweaked to turn the sun look like a warm, fuzzy ball, with lacy prominences licking up from the edge of the disk.
Friedman focused on one flare in particular over the weekend: In the picture you see at right, the colors have been reversed to produce a dark sun and dusky prominence against the light background of space.
"The prominence was huge (approximately 150,000 miles long from our perspective and more than 50,000 miles high) but it was a little faint," Friedman told me in an email. "I found that the subtle structures showed better when the image was reversed. I was holding a public observing event at the Buffalo Museum of Science on Saturday when this was taken, very late in the afternoon. It took all my strength to peel the eyes from my telescope and put in the camera for a few minutes. The sun was putting on the most spectacular visual show I can recall in quite a few years."
Another spectacle took place on Monday, when a powerful magnetic filament — rippling more than 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers) across the sun's disk at one point — snapped off a huge flare. SpaceWeather.com offers an animated image of the event, courtesy of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, and here's a YouTube video that shows the filament in action:
A filament is flung off the sun's edge in this view from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
More pictures of the sun's flare-ups are available from the SpaceWeather.com website, and there might be still more to come. "Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments," SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips says.
More hot flashes from the sun:
- Good news! Solar flare won't destroy Earth
- Stunning view of the sun ... and Discovery?!
- Pictures and video: Stare at the sun
- Slideshow: Month in Space Pictures
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or following the Cosmic Log Google+ page. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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And here comes that massive solar flare in May of 2013 that will fry the electronics probably the equivalent of the flares that hit in 1859...A big ole' EMP
OMG I hope this is not an indication that the sun is dying on us, we wasted too much time waring with each other to achive the advancements we need to insure our survival, if the sun were to explote tomorrow..........it would surely be the end of everything past, present and future.......
Hugo, the Sun will not explode tomorrow, or the day after, or for billions of days after that.
Tomorrow's Sun will look pretty much like today's.
...[Activity is] signaling that the sun is ramping up toward the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. Physicists expect that peak, also known as "Solar Max," to come in 2013.
The article is about great photos of something that happens every 11 (or so) years. Cameras and telescopes are better than they were 11 years ago, and the Internet is certainly helping to share these pictures, but otherwise this is a normal event that has been happening since the birth of the Earth and Sun billions of years ago.
In fact, this solar cycle is somewhat more subdued than the last - http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/
Cheers! ~Michael (AFM★Radio / Astronomy.FM)
As Michael clearly points out, nothing's going to happen (at least for the next couple hundred million years) that hasn't happened before.
But just for the sake of argument, let's assume something catastrophic is in the offing. Let's assume we'd colonized most of the solar system by now. Guess what? We'd still be screwed.
Let's assume we'd colonized some of the nearby stars. Guess what? Humanity as a whole would be preserved (and I consider that a good thing) but everyone in this solar system would still be screwed. (Indeed, a star going nova can be dangerous 10 or more light-years out).
Hugo, nature isn't kind. This isn't like asteroid deflection, where there's a chance of doing something. There are some things we can't do anything about, no matter what. It's possible that there are civilizations out there that were wiped out by some natural cosmic event and just plain bad luck.
But again, for the near or massively distant future, a serious change in solar output won't be one of them...
...And who knows? By the time the Sun does begin to leave the main sequence, perhaps we will have some options.
Hugo, even if we didn't have any war for the past 1200 years, there is little we could do to stop an entire sun from exploding. It just means its going through a phase. Enjoy it, because its probably going to be around a lot longer than us, if nature takes a mean turn.
The sun flares could very well make the global warming enthusiasts freak out.
Our Sun is not massive enough to ever go super nova, its death throws will involve going red giant and swallowing all the planets up to and maybe including the earth, after that it will ejects its outer layers in numerous bursts till it ejects the rest of its matter to become a white dwarf within a planetary nebula, then after billions of years it will eventually cool off to become a black dwarf.
What this means is we have about 3 billion years till it starts, then another 500 million years till life is most likely on its way out on the earth. So humanity (if it doesnt destroy itself) has plenty of time to develop advanced technology to exit this solar system and colonize others.
I would worry more about what disasters space holds in store for us then I would about potential disasters happening due to the Sun dying.
Oh Whew! 3 Billion years. I was worried. I thought you said 3 Million years. That's a load off my mind.
ROFL
OMG I hope this is not an indication that the sun is dying on us, we wasted too much time waring with each other to achive the advancements we need to insure our survival, if the sun were to explote tomorrow..........it would surely be the end of everything past, present and future.......
Expect to see some more of the Northern Lights. Oh Boy!!!
Chuck Norris would totally kick the Sun's ass.
Funny how the goverment is downplaying this cycle's peak. I even read a report last week stating that the sun was calming down. Now I read the opposite. I don't believe much in what the goverment says. Others will argue that this particular cycle peak is way different than in recorded history. Could be a big event. Like say a 12,000yr cycle. We have no idea what is about to happen. I don't buy into the bullet flare theory which could destroy this planet, but I do buy into an Electric Universe in which there will be an electrical discharge unlike anything mankind can imangine. Just look at all of the other planets and our moon. Those are not impact craters, nor volcanos. Those are electric discharge impacts. In other words, lightning bolts of Godly proportions.
I find it interesting that where the science is pretty solid - solar physics and the current solar cycle - you "don't believe in what the government says" (as if "the government" - like there is only ONE government - could absolutely control what 1000's of astronomers around the world have to say); and yet you do "buy into" an Electric Universe that is not only completely lacking in any evidence, but is also contrary to several laws of physics.
Curious....
Curious indeed.....
Why am I picturing Zeus releasing lightning bolts at the earth. I have to thank Steve for giving me an idea for a story, but not much else of value there.
Those impact craters on the moon are not a good indication of how severe a force was that caused them because we all know the moon is made of cheese, probably a soft cheese like young jack or something :o)
Lebowsky, Apollo astronaut Bill Anders was asked "Is the Moon made out of green cheese?" by a member of the helo crew that plucked them out of 10-foot waves on the cold Pacific after splashdown.
Bill replied - "No, it's American cheese."
It sounds like settled science to me!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bill's most famous picture: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0812/as8-14-2383HR.jpg
Excellent, I remember all that, and have been a big fan since day 1.
First:
All the life on the earth, every plant, animal, etc., will all be gone one day, the planet has a lifespan. This is due mostly to the plate tectonics (plates sliding around, the earths crust moving) once that stops life stops.
Second:
The earth is going to look like Mars does long before the Sun dies out, when the sun does die out, it's too small to nova or become a pulsar or quasar it's just going to expand and then burn out, when it expands we are losing the planet earth to it a few other planets too.
Third:
Anyone who tells you they know what the Sun is doing right now is just guessing, we are specks of dust living on a planet that's just a speck of dust in a solar system with a relatively small Sun, that solar system is a speck of dust, compared to the universe and the galaxies in it our entire galaxy is a speck of dust.
Forth:
We hope -because the life of the Sun is so infinitely large and our entire human existence a blink of an eye to the Suns life, that ac few thousand years of stability should hold on for awhile, but make no mistake: everyone is just guessing about the Sun.
Lastly: it doesn't matter what we do people, the best mankind will ever do is get off earth, something we are having a hard time doing, and set up cities and bases on Mars, the Moon, the moon's of other planets, build space stations around the solar system, etc., basically spread our seed out into our solar system, that way if earth is destroyed (by an asteroid for example) we as a species don't die (if we take other life with us: dogs, tree's etc., they live too) but if the Sun gets funky we had better be very far away from it to survive, and it would likely be a temporary survival.
And we will never, ever, get out of our solar system and go to any other ones, the universe (mother nature, god, the force that moves creation, call it what you will) has set up a perfect, divine system: nothing can ever get to anything else in the universe, the distances are too great, there could be life in every solar system out there, and nothing is ever able to go anywhere outside of their solar system, ever.
Well now you jinxed yourself cause you said 'never ever'.
Yeah that sun is a puzzle alright, its just too bad that we don't have any other models to study and help form our theories.
Yes, Lebowsky! If only there were other "suns" out there for us to study.... Billions and billions of them, and we'd have a chance of gathering data. What a shame. ;-p
Michael, your invited to stop by my column and check out a few articles on astrophotography that I have posted. I may have found some of these "suns" you speak of :o)
I've enjoyed your columns - thanks!
The only constant is change and never ever say never because if history is any teacher when you say never it will always be proven wrong. We have been advancing in technology for what 100 years? Now take the life span of the Sun lets say 3 billion years, How far do you think mankind can advance in 3 billion years?
How about asking How will humanity evolve in 3 billion years? Sorry but Time will be the determine what we as a species do and how far we will advance. History has proven that man reaches for the seemingly impossible and usually surpasses it.
But saying it will never happen is just plain ignorance. The fact is you dont nor will you ever know if we can or will. Unless you can live forever.
An Average Guy who received a below average grade in science.
All of you are just trying to stroke your human ego, we know nothing about the Sun, what we know could fit in about 100 yrs of books, that's it, and this argument that mankind will last billions of years is ridiculous we are going to have a hard time lasting another 1000 yrs. never mind millions or billions.
You are all just fooling yourselves and trying to make yourselves feel better, the Sun does not have to explode to kill of human beings, we are doomed just by being who we are, Christians had better hope that they are right, and that one day Daddy is coming home to take control and set things right, cause otherwise, left to our own devices, we are history, and not a big part of it.
Every post after mine is just filled with human pride and ego, just a bunch of talk, ants trying convince other ants they understand the workings of a star, it's thinking like that that hes got us on the road to destroying ourselves: misplaced pride and arrogance in the face of the universe.
I've dedicated a lifetime to studying our star. Our understanding is always improving, but we are light-years beyond "we know nothing".
It's more likely that it is a failure to accept facts, than "misplaced pride and arrogance", that is the real danger.
Well, I believe this is a ploy by the Democrats to scare people into voting for them, since they believe they can control everything from sun spots to age spots to eternal damnation. Curious, tho why they didn't time the solar max to just before the elections next year. Hmmmmm.
Sir, you are anything but average. You make more sense than most posters and write more intelligent than many. The point is, we must take very good care of what we have.....as that is all we have.
Average Guy, I just read your post, and now you've blown my whole day. Here I thought I was special, and you've convinced me I'm just about nothing! I think I'll go home and go to bed. Maybe when I wake up, I'll be something.
The above post was meant in reply to Average Guy.
We have about a billion years to go before the earth gets fried by the expanding sun. Our star will not go supernova but it will expand and most likely engulf the earth. In the end it will blow off most of its outer layers and make a beautiful planetary nebula.
its actually about 3 to 3.5 billion years before it goes red giant.
True Pirate, but our Sun is ever getting hotter, it'll fry Earth long before it gets to the red giant stage. We may only have hundreds of millions of years, well, that is unless we put up some kind of shielding by then into orbit or L1.
Mitchell
There are other "suns" out there for us to study. Our sun is a type G star. That is the most average type that there is. When you gaze into the heavens at night, you are looking at many "suns" that are like ours. It is pretty cool that even sun spot activity has a lot to do with weather conditions. This makes me wish I lived further up North to see some dazzling light displays at night!
Well if the Sun burns out at least the global warming people will go away also....there is the benefit!
Hope everyone has an escape pod, and plenty of Spam!
Dang! I sold all my survival stuff last Summer in a yard sale! Now what?
I watched the film over and over until.............. I could see an image if the DEVIL dancing and then at the end flying away in a vapor of.........Oh my!
Check your coffee, someone sneaked something into it.
"An Average Guy who received a below average grade in science"
And spelling, apparently
I think comparing us to ants is a compliment; they function in balance with their environment. I would compare us to something more like a virus that invades its host. Killing the host just so it can procreate, completely oblivious to the fact that we will cause our own death by killing our host.
If we could learn to harness just a tiny bit of the power from that great fusion reactor...
If you want to harness the energy of the Sun more efficiently than the solar panels currently made, or acres of water filled black pipe to make steam that could turn a turbine that could turn a generator that would make the electricity, think about launching a MHD generator, and beaming back the electric energy via microwaves to collectors that then would turn the microwaves into usable electricity. As it has been stated, the Sun billions of years. Mankind has risen and self destructed 9 times in the last 100,000 years. As a species, it is unlikely that we will last much longer, particularly if Islam has any say in the matter.
My physics prof was telling us about multiple solar cycles. He said the chinese have been monitering sun spot and temps for several thousand years. That with ice pack layers has produced theories about a 1000 year cycle. He said the cycle will peak in the early 21 century. Why is that not discussed more widely? In the last cycle, we went from a green Greenland, through a mini ice age, back to record global temperatures.
I would like to see some historical data on the amplitude of the temp swings to compare to current temps that are coupled with global warming gases. Maybe we could get a better idea of the expected temperature variation.
These flares are going to distrupt some things here pretty soon.