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'Dead sunspot' launches ball of plasma toward Earth
Live Science ^ | 04/12/2022 | Stephanie Pappas

Posted on 04/12/2022 7:31:09 AM PDT by BenLurkin

The explosion comes courtesy of a dead sunspot called AR2987.... The sunspot explosion released loads of energy in the form of radiation, which also led to a coronal mass ejection (CME) — explosive balls of solar material — both of which could spur more intense northern lights in Earth's upper atmosphere. The material in that CME is likely to impact Earth on April 14...

The idea of a "dead" sunspot is more poetic than scientific, said Philip Judge, a solar physicist at the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), but the convection of the sun breaks these spots apart, leaving in their wake magnetically-disturbed bits of quiet solar surface.

"Occasionally," Judge wrote Live Science in an email, "sunspots can 'restart,' with more magnetism appearing later (days, weeks) at the same region, as if a weakness was made in the convection zone, or as if there is an unstable region under the surface that is particularly good at generating magnetic fields beneath."

Whatever the future of AR2987, the sunspot let out a C-class solar flare at 5:21 Universal Time Monday (April 11). Such flares happen when the plasma and magnetic fields above the sunspot give way under stress; they accelerate outward, Judge said, because they would run into dense material if they went downward toward the sun's interior.

C-class flares are fairly common and rarely cause any impacts on Earth directly. Sometimes, as with today's eruption, solar flares can trigger coronal mass ejections, which are huge eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun that travel outward into space at millions of miles per hour. C-class solar flares rarely trigger CMEs, according to SpaceWeatherLive(opens in new tab), and when they do, the CMEs are usually slow and weak

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: ar2987; astronomy; auroras; carringtonevent; catastrophism; cme; coronalmassejection; philipjudge; plasma; science; sida; solar; stephaniepappas; sunspot; sunspots
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To: Red Badger
Found these on my porch this morning........should I be concerned?
21 posted on 04/12/2022 8:07:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin ((The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.))
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To: frogjerk

Stoopid solar warming. Al gore and his idling Suburban. Or, pootin.


22 posted on 04/12/2022 8:08:00 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

TBH I would only rate Starship Troopers as a 4/10 and not a serious sci-fi, but it’s definitely watchable because of Dina Meyer and Denise Richards >:D


23 posted on 04/12/2022 8:10:02 AM PDT by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: BenLurkin

24 posted on 04/12/2022 8:10:07 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: BenLurkin

25 posted on 04/12/2022 8:10:50 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (It's hard to "Believe all women" when judges say "I don't know what a woman is".)
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To: frogjerk

God is getting impatient with the clowns running things.


26 posted on 04/12/2022 8:11:49 AM PDT by Shady (The #JihadJunta: "We are now a nation of Men, Not of Laws. You are not as equal as we are...")
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To: BenLurkin

Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!


27 posted on 04/12/2022 8:12:00 AM PDT by seowulf (Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...Will Durant)
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To: Red Badger
Are they just throwing rounds at people now???
28 posted on 04/12/2022 8:12:16 AM PDT by ExSES (the "bottomhttps://youtu.be/ycrqXJYf1SU-line")
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To: Red Badger

Reusable bullets!!

You fire them, and the entire cartridge comes out of the barrel!

What will they think of next?


29 posted on 04/12/2022 8:14:02 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: dforest

Well, no plasma soup for you then


30 posted on 04/12/2022 8:23:03 AM PDT by Bob434 (.)
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To: cartoonistx

Who put the bop in the bopshubop?


31 posted on 04/12/2022 8:24:38 AM PDT by Bob434 (.)
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To: BenLurkin

If they taste like chicken, I wouldn’t be to worried


32 posted on 04/12/2022 8:26:04 AM PDT by Bob434 (.)
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To: Red Badger

Someone threw ammo at her house?


33 posted on 04/12/2022 8:27:15 AM PDT by Bob434 (.)
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To: George from New England

Solar activity is increasing. Just part of a normal sunspot cycle as we are coming out of a solar minimum. The increase is good for us hams.


34 posted on 04/12/2022 8:29:35 AM PDT by dis.kevin (Dry white toast)
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To: Bob434

They used a Ghost Gun..................


35 posted on 04/12/2022 8:32:12 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: z3n

The movie really had nothing to do with the book other than rip off the title and Heinlein’s name...............


36 posted on 04/12/2022 8:33:45 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: BenLurkin

That is one obscure movie reference. Kudos to you, BenLurkin!


37 posted on 04/12/2022 8:37:14 AM PDT by Big Red Clay (Greetings from the Big Red State )
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To: BenLurkin

38 posted on 04/12/2022 9:27:01 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: BradyLS

Of course there is.


39 posted on 04/12/2022 9:35:56 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: dis.kevin

From what I am seeing this so-called active solar cycle is anemic compared to most active cycles and cycle 26 is projected to have little to no sun spot activity.

You are correct an active sun is good for humanity, we flourish when things warm up, but I fear we are headed in a Grand Solar Minimum at this point. If it continues things are going to get a lot colder. I know the last three springs in eastern Kentucky have been non-existent. Cold, rainy the majority of each week with a decent day or two at best and then comes May and late in the month it’s like a switch straight from winter to summer.


40 posted on 04/12/2022 9:41:26 AM PDT by sarge83
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