Massive Solar Flare

Update: June 08, 2011 - The flare was supposed to produce an aurora in the northern sky of North America. So far I can not see anything in the Northern sky. 10pm California time.

Original article:
On June 7, 2011 the sun experienced a CME, an acronym for Coronal Mass Ejection, from sunspot complex 1226-1227. The picture to the left is an actual picture from the event.

The flare's peak was at 1:41am (ET) June 8th. The blast was not pointed at the earth, but we will get a glancing blow from the blast around 6pm (ET) June 8, 2011. The effects are unknown exactly, buy there may be disruptions in GPS communication and power grids. Airports may change flight patterns near the poles.

This is the biggest flare up since 2006. The debris from the eruption fell back to the sun, covering almost one third of the surface.


What is a Coronal Mass Ejection? Here is a good explanation from NASA:

The outer solar atmosphere, the corona, is structured by strong magnetic fields. Where these fields are closed, often above sunspot groups, the confined solar atmosphere can suddenly and violently release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections. A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion. Solar material streams out through the interplanetary medium, impacting any planet or spacecraft in its path. CMEs are sometimes associated with flares but can occur independently.

Here is a NASA video of the event:




If only this would have happened on May 21! Harold Camping would have said, "You see! You see? What did I tell you!"

See the NASA information about the CME at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News060711-blast.html. I love NASA.