Tag: The Sun

Just when we thought we’d seen the most powerful flares from a colossal sunspot, the sun unleashed its strongest eruption of the weekend yet, triggering a radio blackout even as the star continues to crackle with solar storms.  According to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), the dynamic solar flare occurred late Saturday (May 10) from an active sunspot region called AR3664. It peaked at 9:23 p.m. EDT (0123 May 11 GMT), registering as a massive X5.8 class flare, SWPC officials said. As a result, parts of some of the…

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If there were a Page Six for what’s going on in space, the sunspot region AR3664 would definitely be one of the biggest “stars” highlighted. Over the past few days, the region has grown to be roughly 124,300 miles (200,000 kilometers) wide — more than 15 times the diameter of Earth. You can see this dramatic evolution in a new time-lapse video, which consists of imagery gathered by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. And AR3664 is active as well as enormous: It keeps firing off powerful solar flares and coronal mass…

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has bumped up this weekend’s geomagnetic storm watch to a level G4, the second highest on the scale. The change comes as solar activity continues at high levels and at least four coronal mass ejections (CMEs) propel toward Earth. According to the NOAA’s SWPC, to have a watch at this level is rare, but it is indeed issued when there’s a high likelihood that several CMEs will reach Earth and create “highly elevated” geomagnetic activity. As we’ve reported lately,…

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It’s already rare for a single location to experience a total solar eclipse — but for cities like Carbondale, Illinois, the odds have been ever in its favor. A lucky seven years ago, it was in part of the solar eclipse path of totality, and it will be this year as well. “To have two total solar eclipses in a decade is truly extraordinary and almost unheard of … we are beyond thrilled,” Sarah Vanvooren, co-chair of the Eclipse Steering Committee and director of Events and Outreach at Southern Illinois…

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If you plan to watch the solar eclipse April 8 at the edge of the totality path, you might want to move further into the shadow. New amateur calculations of the solar eclipse path suggest that variations in the local terrain might change if you see a total eclipse, or how long the eclipse is experienced, compared to older estimates. The work, first reported in Forbes, is not peer-reviewed, however. So take the findings with a dose of caution. The next solar eclipse will happen in parts of the United…

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Don’t panic! It’s April Fools’ Day, which means the internet is rife with jokes, including some of the celestial sort. If you happened to stumble across the University of Vermont’s (UVM) press release about the April 8 total solar eclipse, your heart might’ve skipped a beat: “Eclipse Path and Date Miscalculated,” reads the headline. Well, that certainly caught our attention.  Diving into the press release, it states that “[b]y failing to account for the time it takes light to travel from the sun, a laser-based model led by the U.S.…

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Satellites have detected a massive solar flare powerful enough to ionize part of Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists spotted the solar flare erupting from the bottom of the sun on Thursday (March 28), using satellites from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to the organization’s Space Weather Prediction Center.  The flare, which peaked at 4:56 p.m. ET, was categorized as an X1.1 flare. X-class flares are the most powerful type of explosion the sun can produce, according to NASA.  A solar flare (far right) bursts from the sun’s surface, as…

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