Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)
IS A 'CANNIBAL CME' COMING?
One CME left the sun on July 14th, followed by a second faster CME on July 15th. According to a NOAA model, the second CME will sweep up the first, forming a 'cannibal CME' that hits Earth on July 18th. The impact could spark G1 to G2-class geomagnetic storms.
A DARK ERUPTION ON THE SUN (UPDATED):
One of the most visually dramatic eruptions of Solar Cycle 25 occured on July 14th, when a spray of dark plasma flew away from the sun's southern hemisphere. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the event:
The explosion started in the magnetic canopy of AR3370, a small and previously unremarkable sunspot. X-ray sensors on Earth-orbiting satellites registered a C8.8-class solar flare at 1844 UT just before the dark ejecta appeared. What made it "dark"? It's not made of dark matter. Instead, plasma hurled away from the sunspot was relatively cool and dense, so it silhouetted the glow of the underlying sun.
Update: New images from SOHO confirm that this eruption did indeed produce a CME. It is the first of two CMEs merging to form the cannibal CME described above. The second CME was launched into space on July 15th by a C-class flare from big sunspot AR3363: movie.
IS A 'CANNIBAL CME' COMING?
One CME left the sun on July 14th, followed by a second faster CME on July 15th. According to a NOAA model, the second CME will sweep up the first, forming a 'cannibal CME' that hits Earth on July 18th. The impact could spark G1 to G2-class geomagnetic storms.
A DARK ERUPTION ON THE SUN (UPDATED):
One of the most visually dramatic eruptions of Solar Cycle 25 occured on July 14th, when a spray of dark plasma flew away from the sun's southern hemisphere. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the event:
The explosion started in the magnetic canopy of AR3370, a small and previously unremarkable sunspot. X-ray sensors on Earth-orbiting satellites registered a C8.8-class solar flare at 1844 UT just before the dark ejecta appeared. What made it "dark"? It's not made of dark matter. Instead, plasma hurled away from the sunspot was relatively cool and dense, so it silhouetted the glow of the underlying sun.
Update: New images from SOHO confirm that this eruption did indeed produce a CME. It is the first of two CMEs merging to form the cannibal CME described above. The second CME was launched into space on July 15th by a C-class flare from big sunspot AR3363: movie.