World News Headlines January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling 0 NASA captures the explosive moment a brilliant solar flare fired out of the sun 0 0000 0 0 more NASA captures the explosive moment a brilliant solar flare fired out of the sun January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling now playing Transferring money from UAE abroad: what are my cheapest options January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling WIN With Nespresso This Mother’s Day January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling NBA Playoffs 2022: A Casual Fan's Guide to the Postseason January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling Best New Climbing Gear of 2022 January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling A Local Weekend Travel Guide to Austin, Texas January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling First Drive: 2022 Range Rover Ups the Luxury SUV Experience January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling Most Stylish Rain Jackets, Parkas, and Trench Coats for Men January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling EU eyes Russian oil import ban as Moscow strikes western Ukraine January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling World-class Clark Int’l Airport opens new 110,000 square-meter passenger terminal January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling PCG: Bodies of 5 children who drowned in Taal Lake found January 24, 2022 Under One Ceiling NASA captures the explosive moment a brilliant solar flare fired out of the sun On Jan. 20, NASA spied an explosion more than 90 million miles from home. The massive shimmering ball of plasma at the heart of our solar system (aka the sun) let loose a solar flare on Thursday, and NASA’s sun-observing Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the moment. And now, a pair of freshly released GIFs — technically, one is just a zoomed-in version of the main one — highlight the eye-popping burst of energy. Here’s the full image. Even zoomed out, the solar flare is very hard to miss. Just watch the right side of the image; you’ll know it when you see it. Via Giphy And here’s the zoomed-in view of the same moment. Via Giphy NASA calls this a “mid-level” flare, with an M5.5 classification which speaks to the strength of the space weather event in the context of its impact on Earth. See, solar flares like this are essentially a massive release of electromagnetic radiation. When an outburst occurs, that radiation spreads out across our solar system at the speed of light. And when it’s powerful enough, the burst of energy can directly influence radio waves, electronics, and other Earth-based technologies (specific impacts depend on the amount and type of energy that gets released). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) “space weather scale” has this solar flare event at the second-lowest measure. A “moderate” radio blackout event, which is what this was with its M5 classification, has the potential to black out high-frequency radio communications “for tens of minutes” on Earth’s sunlit side after solar flare occurs. It can also mess with low-frequency navigation signals — that’s not your typical smartphone GPS (or most modern navigational technology), to be clear — for a similar amount of time. Even if you know nothing about any of the underlying science, it’s still plenty cool to look at these images of our distant sun and see a visible eruption of energy. But if you do want to learn more, spaceweather.gov is a great place to start. Related Related posts: North Korea defector says Team USA athlete Gwen Berry would have been executed over ‘unthinkable’ flag protest Tennis star Osaka lights Olympic flame as Games begin Ida deals new blow to Louisiana schools struggling to reopen tags: RSS Feed World News 0000 0 0 previous Ukraine: US orders families of embassy staff to leave next 'A Discovery of Witches' is terrible and I love it
