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6:36:00 PM EST
Hearing Pathetique I -- Klass Brothers
Flaring Up
Here's something to look forward to if you're happening to stay up late tonight, and have reasonably clear skies:
A huge sunspot kicked up a powerful flare Monday that could spark colorful sky lights above Earth Tuesday night or early Wednesday.
The flare was classified as X-3. All X-class flares are considered major, with the number indicated a degree of severity. Its radiation traveled at light speed, arriving at Earth within minutes and, along the way, swamping a detector on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, which monitors the sun and its storms.
Along with the flare came a billowing cloud of charged particles known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. Traveling at millions of miles per hour, CMEs take anywhere from about 17 hours to two or three days to reach Earth.
Scientists expect this CME to arrive overnight Tuesday or sometime Wednesday.
The picture above shows the coronal mass ejection spewing off the sun. They're always astounding to look at; it always seems after one of those that the sun just shouldn't be there anymore. I'm glad that's not actually how it works. In any event, if you're up tonight, look to the skies? You might see something worth seeing.
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Oops! I meant to say "East." This is what happens when you don't get enough sleep. You lose all sense of direction!
And, I actually think I did see something out there because later, when it was still dark, the sky wasn't so pink anymore. But who knows. It could have just been city lights rather than something cosmic. :-)
And this is completely off topic, and maybe others have asked about it in the past and I'm just not aware, but any chance of ever getting spell-check on the journals? -
I don"t know if I'm seeing anything special, but the sky is glowing a deep pink toward the west. Of course, this could just be the tell-tale signs of the sun rising, but I wouldn't know. I'm not usually up at this hour (thank goodness). Can't sleep. I think I must be still on West Coast time. Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye out for the flare! :-)
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Just in time for the inaugaration.
yeah... (she said sarcastically)
:P
Loretta
1/19/05 3:11 PM
Rebecca