...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, October 28, 2003
      ( 2:31 PM )
 
Here Comes the Sun

Literally.

One of the most powerful solar flares in years erupted
from giant sunspot 486 this morning at approximately
1110 UT. The blast measured X17 on the Richter scale
of solar flares. As a result of the explosion, a strong
S3-class solar radiation storm is underway.

The explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection
(CME) toward Earth. When it left the sun, the cloud
was traveling 2125 km/s (almost 5 million mph). This
CME could trigger bright auroras when it sweeps
past our planet perhaps as early as tonight.

I take my solemn duty as Prognosticator of Doom from Space seriously, folks. So when I post something like this, you might just want to pay attention. On a lighter note, we should be in the clear tomorrow; there doesn't appear to be any smackdowns from the Universe coming tomorrow. Yet.

Thanks to Maru for the link.

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