Did you feel it? Coronal Mass Ejection hits Earth and other sunny weather.

[Dover]

m..m..m..m..m..m..m..my coronal.




WEAK IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection hit Earth's magnetic field around 0852 UT on July 11th, but the impact did not provoke strong geomagnetic activity. Nevertheless, high-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as a fast stream of solar wind blows around our planet.

And in other news...

DARK FIREWORKS ON THE SUN: NASA has just released new movies of an inky-dark solar explosion that continues to puzzle experts more than a month after it happened.
Earth-orbiting satellites detected a flash of X-rays coming from the western edge of the solar disk. Registering only "M" (for medium) on the Richter scale of solar flares, the blast at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill eruption--that is, until researchers looked at the movies.

"We'd never seen anything like it," says Alex Young, a solar physicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Half of the sun appeared to be blowing itself to bits."

NASA has just released new high-resolution videos of the event recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

See the footage from Science@NASA.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/11jul_darkfireworks/


http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/11jul_darkfireworks/

[snagglepuss]

1. Half the sun blowing itself to bits doesn't seem like a positive development.

:wtf:

[Dover]

2. Yep, the Blob... and that mega-thunderstorm on Saturn one month later..

First the great black spot on the Sun and then the "Great White Spot" on Saturn.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2012122/Saturns-landscape-blot-actually-thunderstorm-stretches-10-600-miles.html

Listen http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/saturn-thunderstorm-audio/


Time to break out the plastic and duct tape, duck and cover.