off into the great beyond!

CHRISTOPHER MCKITTERICK

Gallery of Space:
Huge Solar Flare


Image from SOHO

Wowee, is that a serious flare. NASA describes it thus:

An X 17.2 flare, the second largest flare observed by SOHO, was setting off a strong high energy proton event and a fast-moving Coronal Mass Ejection, hitting Earth early on Wednesday 29 October. The one-two punch was a done deal on Wednesday afternoon, when an X 10.0 flare set off another round of particles and another fast-moving CME.

Also interesting is this note:

A number of people have noticed that a comet was approaching the Sun shortly before the flare and CME (see the beginning of the LASCO C2 movie above, lower right corner). However, we have no reason to believe there is any connection. Such a comet would evaporate completely before getting anywhere near the surface, and its mass would be like a speck of dust compared to the almost 10 billion tons of matter involved in the CME alone. And the orbit of sungrazing comets (theoretically speaking, should they have survived the encounter) does not touch the Sun itself.

For more info on these flares, see the SOHO page:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_10_28/

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