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We might see northern lights here tonight
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Eruption of a medium-sized solar flare potentially could cause a display of northern lights -- aurora borealis -- overnight tonight, although the event generated by a sunspot isn't believed to be large enough to cause problems for communications or air travel.

David Aguilar, director of information for the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the electromagnetic pulse generated by the solar flare will interact with the Earth's electromagnetic field to produce atmospheric lights that could be visible as far south as Washington, D.C.

It could be the first time in years that northern lights are visible in this region.

An Associated Press story quotes NASA officials as saying the flare peaked early Tuesday.

"A cloud of charged particles erupted from the sun's outer atmosphere and is expected to pass by Earth late Wednesday or early Thursday, causing a minor disruption to Earth's magnetic field," the Associated Press quoted the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.

Some brief interruptions could occur in high-frequency radio communications, especially those closer to the north and south poles. Global positioning devices also might show tiny errors.

Mr. Aguilar said the solar flare occurred in a position on the sun that's aimed toward Earth, although it won't be a direct hit. While NASA already reported the solar flare Tuesday, it takes many hours, even a day or longer, for the electromagnetic pulse to reach Earth.

Northern lights could be seen this evening, although they also could be evident Thursday and even Friday.

"One seven years ago disrupted airline flights over the poles because of radiation levels equal to 15 to 20 X-rays," he said, adding that communication satellites could be shut down temporarily for protection during the event.

"It's rare to have a solar flare pointed toward Earth," Mr. Aguilar said. "As it moves toward us we'll likely get spectacular photographs from Scandinavia. It will be a fortunate event to see."

The sun is moving into a more dynamic period of its 11-year cycle after years of low solar activity. The cycle is caused by the orientation of its magnetic field, with the maximum activity expected to occur in 2013.

Viewing the northern lights, Mr. Aguilar said, occurs best in dark, clear skies and viewers should just look overhead.

People in this region may see a grayish-green cloud, but reds and blues sometimes are possible. The lights can be photographed, he said, by putting a digital camera on a tripod with the lens wide-open on the infinity setting. The exposure rate must be adjusted manually to last for 5 to 10 seconds.

Friendly Goatus wrote:Word around the internet pseudo-intellectual cosmos enthusiast campfire is that Betelgeuse is about to go supernova. Like within the next few months. It's one of the brightest stars in our night sky, part of the Orion constellation. The supernova would be about as bright as a full moon for 6 weeks straight, possibly brighter. It's over 500 light years away so it won't do much except inspire awe and maybe cause a few frenzied religious suicides.

It might be completely exaggerated and untrue but I hope beyond hope it happens. Something this huge isn't even a once in a lifetime thing. The last visible supernova happened in the 9th century. I'd probably sit in a lawn chair on the front lawn for a month and a half just watching it with the fevered eyes of a madman.

Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. The water, equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world's ocean, surrounds a huge, feeding black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away.

Astronomers expected water vapor to be present even in the early, distant universe, but had not detected it this far away before. There's water vapor in the Milky Way, although the total amount is 4,000 times less than in the quasar, because most of the Milky Way's water is frozen in ice.

Necrometer wrote:fucking scientists

Necrometer wrote:did Sagan ever publish any research in a peer-reviewed journal?