Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured a massive eruption on the Sun. The event took place early Tuesday morning (7th June 2011) and sparked all sorts of fears from the end of the world to concerns the solar flare may cause disruption to communication systems around the globe, although the angle of the eruption probably means effects on Earth will probably be small.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQmS3adLgI[/youtube]
Video caption: M-FLARE AND RADIATION STORM: This morning around 0641 UT, magnetic fields above sunspot complex 1226-1227 became unstable and erupted. The blast produced an M2-class solar flare, an S1-class radiation storm, and a massive CME. A recording of the blast from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory ranks as one of the most beautiful and dramatic movies of the SDO era.
A powerful solar flare, hurled into space when super hot gases erupted on the sun Tuesday, is expected to cause a display of the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) on Thursday.
That’s according to the NASA space-based Solar Dynamics Observatory which said the earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is moving at 1400 kilometres per second.
Due to its angle, however, effects on Earth should be fairly small. Nevertheless, the M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare may generate space weather effects here on Earth in a few days the Observatory said.
The sun unleashed the solar flare yesterday at about 6.41a.m. GMT from sunspot 1226, blanketing almost one third of the solar disk. The eruption resulted in a massive plasma cloud being ejected from the Sun.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Centre has downgraded its forecast from Tuesday stating that the flare would result in some disruption to communication systems around the globe
Source: Display Of Northern Lights Expected From Solar Flare
