SIGNIFICANT FARSIDE EXPLOSION: Yesterday, Oct. 29th, something exploded on the farside of the sun. It was probably a sunspot. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory saw material flying over the edge of the solar disk (movie), while the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded a significant CME:
The explosion was so strong, it peppered Earth with energetic particles despite the fact that the blast site was hidden behind the body of the sun. You can see the effect of those particles by playing this movie. The speckles aren't stars. They are energetic protons from the sun striking SOHO's onboard CCD camera. Fogging spacecraft cameras is just one of many things a surge in solar protons can do; other effects include degrading the efficiency of solar arrays, causing satellite computers to re-boot, and ionizing Earth's upper atmosphere. The "proton storm" of Oct. 29th is subsiding now.
The blast site will spend the next 10 days or so transiting the farside of the sun, carried around by the 27-day spin of our star. If it still exists at the end of that trip, the active region will emerge onto the Earthside of the sun, and we will see what exploded. Stay tuned.
The blast site will spend the next 10 days or so transiting the farside of the sun, carried around by the 27-day spin of our star. If it still exists at the end of that trip, the active region will emerge onto the Earthside of the sun, and we will see what exploded. Stay tuned.
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