Scientists associate sunspots with the formation of eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), i.e. huge and violent explosions of solar energy, collectively referred to as solar storms.
🌞 Sun news for November 29, 2023: An almost X-flare sends a blob of sun our way
📰 Today’s top news: Bam! The sun almost…
Posted by The Sun Today: Solar Facts and Space Weather on Wednesday, November 29, 2023
In this context, experts from NASA drew attention to a significant eruption on the Sun. According to the server Space Weather reached a value of M9.8, which is almost the highest possible rating for M-class solar flares. Only class X, which is used for the most massive eruptions, is more powerful.
| Solar eruptions cause the ejection of coronal matter, which is in the state of plasma and consists mainly of protons and electrons. Most eruptions occur around sunspots, where an intense magnetic field develops from the surface into the corona. During solar eruptions, the Sun ejects huge clouds of electrified gas that hit Earth’s magnetic field at hundreds of kilometers per second. | |||
| Astronomers watch these phenomena with concern because they can cause geomagnetic storms, thus posing a danger to human technologies such as power grids, satellites, navigation or air travel. |
Thursday and Friday?
Multiple coronal mass ejections have occurred on the Sun in recent days. The first wave of the resulting solar storm can hit the Earth (or just whiz past it) as early as Thursday.
NASA’s solar probe is the fastest human-made object
According to the analysis, these two events may cause a weaker geomagnetic storm (G1 level) on our planet on Thursday and a medium one (G2) on Friday, which may also mean auroras at higher latitudes, the website reminds EarthSky.
The aurora came to the Czech Republic in two waves. It was red to purple
Although the upcoming geomagnetic storm is still expected to be relatively weak on November 30, it could still lead to disruptions or possibly outages of radio and GPS networks, especially near the Earth’s poles.
Stains like a notice
We already reported last week that new images from the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite showed a huge cluster of sunspots. They measured over 190,000 kilometers in width, i.e. 15 times more than the diameter of the planet Earth.
According to meteorologist Chris Wicklund, the observed cluster of sunspots was the largest to date current solar cycle – solar cycles usually last 11 years.
| Spots are actually the cooler part of the sun’s surface and appear as small black dots in images. These darker areas have a temperature of over 3,500 degrees Celsius, while the Sun’s surface typically reaches 5,500 degrees Celsius. The difference in temperature is caused by significant changes in the star’s magnetic field. |
Giant sunspots may cause blackouts on Earth in the coming weeks
2023-11-29 17:33:41
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