NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an M6.5 class flare at 3:16 EDT on April 11, 2013. This image shows a combination of light in wavelengths of 131 and 171 Angstroms. Credit: NASA/SDO.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this view as the Sun let loose with its biggest solar flare of the year so far. It’s not a real big one — a mid-level flare classified as an M6.5 – but an associated coronal mass ejection is heading towards Earth and could spur some nice auroae by this weekend. Spaceweather.com predicts the expanding cloud (see animation below) will probably deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field late on April 12th or more likely April 13th. The NOAA Space Prediction Center forecasts this event to cause moderate (G2) Geomagnetic Storm activity, and predicts geomagnetic activity to start in the mid to latter part (UTC) of April 13. They add that the source region is still potent and well-positioned for more geoeffective activity in the next few days.
See this NASA page for info on solar flares, CMEs, and more.
The ongoing saga of the New Horizons mission—will it get truncated and its science team…
The supermassive black hole at the heart of M87 was the target of the Event…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are some of the most violent events in the universe. Some have…
Technicians at Berkeley Lab are building an experiment that will conduct radio astronomy on the…
A recent study examines how the Earth was hit by blasts from supernovae (plural form…
Barnard's Star is the second closest star system to Earth, at a distance of 5.96…