Controlling the speed of solar eruptions.The billion-ton blobs of magnetized gas that the sun sporadically hurls into space have a speed limit, a new study suggests. These solar eruptions, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), can't reach Earth in less than half a day. That's important information because CMEs heading toward Earth can harm satellites and interfere with radio communication and power systems. "We now know we have at least 12 hours to take preventive measures," says Nat Gopalswamy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Md. Gopalswamy and his colleagues, analyzing CME CME See: Chicago Mercantile Exchange CME See Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). travel times dating back to 1859, propose that the speed limit comes about because the sun can pack only a limited amount of energy into an individual eruption. Active regions never seem to exceed 20 times the surface area of Earth, and the strength of their magnetic fields magnetic fields, n.pl the spaces in which magnetic forces are detectable; created by magnetostrictive ultrasonic scalers to cause the tips of instruments such as ultrasonic scalers to vibrate. also seems to be capped. Gopalswamy presented the study on June I at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes pronounced "double-A-S") is a US society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. in Denver. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion