back to article Sleepy spotless summer Sun's shock solar storm surge stuns scientists

The massive solar storm bathing Earth in radiation this week was a significant event not for its strength, but for its timing, say astronomers. On Wednesday, scientists detected a couple of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which have been showering our planet, and will continue to do so over the next two days. As the peak of the …

  1. hitmouse

    And for the forgotten southern hemisphere which has its own aurora ("australis"), details here:http://www.softservenews.com/southern_lights.html

    1. tony2heads

      Yes, the New Zealanders & maybe even Tasmanians (lucky Devils) might see them.

      Icon: well we don't have a Kiwi

  2. frank ly

    " ... our nearest star."

    I think of it as 'OUR star'.

    1. Mage Silver badge

      Re: " ... our nearest star."

      I hope it is our start or the back rental / leasing bill will be horrible.

      I suspect none of the others are ours.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: " ... our nearest star."

        The representative of the OUR will have a word with Obama soon for a few billion years of unbilled fusion services.

  3. C. P. Cosgrove
    Thumb Down

    Not fair !

    I am going to complain - either that or emigrate !

    Every time there is something like a much better than usual aurora display or a meteor shower its either 80% + cloud or 200m visibility fog here in Central Scotland.

    Last night and tonight it's the fog. It's not fair. I feel cheated.

    Chris Cosgrove

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Not fair !

      Vote Yes on Thursday. I'm sure wee Alex has promised better Scottish weather instead of that crappy Westminster weather you are currently saddled with. Bloody Torys, eh?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Same here

    In the Channel Islands, saw nowt.

    My GM counters did show a slight increase on Friday evening, maybe related?

    Its worth mentioning that the tube(s) on these are running uncompensated with +630V on the SBM20 and +445V on the SBM21, both showed increases of between 10 and 20% of background.

  5. itzman

    1.5dB worse SNR on DSL

    is all the difference I can detect...

    Hardly planet busting

  6. Gary Bickford

    They're baaack

    Our ancient enemies the Glfffltaaccchj (phonetic transliteration), remembered only in primordial dreams of reptile beings, fear of snakes, and stories of fabled Atlantis, have returned to wreak vengeance for their defeat 300,000 years ago. Last time around they successfully wiped our racial memories almost completely as they departed in defeat. The war was long, and resulted in the destruction of every "civilized" concentration of humans, as they were burned and melted to slag. But our heroic scientists managed to develop a virus that attacked their scales, making their life on Earth a nightmare of itching and scratching, with ugly festering sores. So they left, to wait until the few remaining humans, suddenly dropped back to pre-civilization conditions, finally died out.

    But we survived! A dozen here, five there, a few hundred in some places, survived those first terrible winters or scorching summers and drowning monsoons. And now, to their dismay, the Glfffltaaccchj return to find that we have surpassed our own original level of technology!

    The Glfffltaaccchj like their planets warmer and wetter than we do, much like the Age of Dinosaurs, when this was one of their favorite planets to come to for vacation. So they have deployed their evil planet-heating technology as a weapon, generating thousands of additional subsea volcanoes to raise the ocean temperature, melt the icecaps, and increase the greenhouse effect. And they have fired into the Sun a magnetic field generator that periodically triggers a huge CME aimed at the Earth to disrupt all electronics and destroy our high tech civilization once more. As their system gets tuned in, the CMEs will get larger and more dangerous.

    This time they plan to cause us to die without destroying our physical infrastructure, so they can move right in. Huge seed-ships are already hiding in the Oort Cloud, waiting for the day when their generals can announce that our resistance is so little that we won't be able to fight back, and they can walk in and eat us.

    Our only hope is to advance our technology faster than they can disrupt it. Since the Carrington Event 150 years ago, they have been tuning their CME generator, but it takes years to monitor and tweak between events, while avoiding a truly catastrophic effect on the Sun and making life on Earth impossible for millenia. So they have to wait, and monitor, and get ready. Already our technology has leaped ahead much faster than they could have imagined. Once we have successfully populated the Solar System, starting with orbital platforms, the Moon, Mars and the Asteroids, it will be too late for them. This is why human space development is so important. Support The Integrated Space Plan! (http://thespaceplan.com) and SAVE HUMANITY!! :D

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