Solar Eruption Heading To Earth
Written by The Night Sky Guy on December 16, 2009 – 3:23 pm -
It appears that the Sun has belched a supercharged cloud of particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that may have Earth in its crosshairs. Tip of the hat to Spaceweather.com for breaking this story.
The solar eruption happened in the early morning hours today around a newly formed group of sunspots, and indications are that it should slam into Earth’s magnetic field around December 18th. It doesn’t look like it was a big eruption on the solar flare ‘richter’ scale – C class - but might still cause some colourful auroras so folks living in high-latitude areas – like Canada should be on alert. At this point experts are waiting for more data to come in from Sun watching satellites about the blast itself to know exactly if it will hit Earth directly or will it be just a glancing blow. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days.
Tags: CME, solar flare
Posted in Auroras, Solar System, Sun | 2 Comments »
By Andy Trybell on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply
I like your web site. It my favourite reading while i’m at work…Please keep it up.
By Larry Krause on Dec 17, 2009 | Reply
I will be on the road with my big rig and will be watching for it. Haven’t seen the Aurora in years or it seems like it! Enjoy your updates and heads up on these things!