2012 mass corona ejection-possible shields for Earth?
- Thread starter KJbushway
- Start date
Well the "Life After People" show is kind of cool.
I, for one, welcome whomever, whatever, or whichever will be our new overlords in 2012. Except, obviously, a Republican president.
"Nemesis" is a really bad movie that will be re-released in 2012, causing great devastation and destruction across the solar system. It will wreak havoc again in about 26,000 years, when it will once again pass through movie theaters in the inner solar system.
Alternatively, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(star)
Alternatively, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(star)
^ Aluminum doesn't rust, dude.
No, but its surface does corrode into aluminum oxide, which acts as a barrier against further corrosion.
I think the idea that a strong CME might somehow cause devastation to the Earth stems from an attempt to link the 'end of the world in 2012' craze to the expected time of maximal activity during the normal solar cycle, which should occur sometime around the end of 2012 or the start of 2013. As far as I know, there's no correlation between the intensity of CME events and the solar cycle, although even if there were, with an average period of the solar cycle at just over a decade, humanity would probably have had to worry about it a long time ago.
Are there any holes in our Van Allen Belts?
^ I think the South Atlantic Anomaly may be an example of what you're referring to:
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4234
However, the Van Allen Belts don't protect us from CMEs; the geomagnetic field does, but it has its limits.
If we have another Carrington event like the one in 1859, we might be slightly screwed.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/06may_carringtonflare/
"Just before dawn the next day, skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii.
Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted."
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4234
However, the Van Allen Belts don't protect us from CMEs; the geomagnetic field does, but it has its limits.
If we have another Carrington event like the one in 1859, we might be slightly screwed.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/06may_carringtonflare/
"Just before dawn the next day, skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii.
Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted."
Oh, definitely. If we really got whammed by a solar event, our power and communications infrastructure would be in a sorry state. As a species, we're really bad about preemptively taking action until we've already been smacked over the head. We're probably not prepared to recover from such an event in anything approaching an "acceptable" time frame that would avoid a tragic loss of life.
I fail to see how a poorly written Star Trek movie is going to end the world.
Looks like flares are back in fashion:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12485104
Stupid rain clouds, obscuring my view of aurorae...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12485104
Stupid rain clouds, obscuring my view of aurorae...
All belts need holes, don't they? Otherwise, how do you adjust them after dinner?
http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/data_service/space_weather/alert_2011-02-15.html
Typical. You wait all decade for a coronal mass ejection and then three come all at once...
Typical. You wait all decade for a coronal mass ejection and then three come all at once...
JJ Abrams would agree, of course.
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