A solar flare will destroy earth! That’s one of the prevailing doomsday scenarios. We’re all going to end up as barbecue!
Talk about nonsense! Solar flares occasionally screw around with satellite transmissions, but thus far, they haven’t turned any of our planets into grilled treats.
According to Rise Earth (http://www.riseearth.com/ ), this paranoid fantasy about solar flares sees the sun ending an “11-year cycle known as solar maximum. When it does reach this peak on or around Dec. 21, 2012, the sun will unleash giant solar flares toward the Earth, causing unparalleled havoc.”
On November10 of this year, NASA issued a press release declaring that a solar flare WILL NOT destroy the earth. "Most importantly, however, there simply isn't enough energy in the sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles to destroy Earth," the space agency explained.
NASA also points out:
“The explosive heat of a solar flare can't make it all the way to our globe, but electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles certainly can. Solar flares can temporarily alter the upper atmosphere creating disruptions with signal transmission from, say, a GPS satellite to Earth causing it to be off by many yards. Another phenomenon produced by the sun could be even more disruptive. Known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), these solar explosions propel bursts of particles and electromagnetic fluctuations into Earth's atmosphere. Those fluctuations could induce electric fluctuations at ground level that could blow out transformers in power grids. The CME's particles can also collide with crucial electronics onboard a satellite and disrupt its systems.
“The explosive heat of a solar flare can't make it all the way to our globe, but electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles certainly can. Solar flares can temporarily alter the upper atmosphere creating disruptions with signal transmission from, say, a GPS satellite to Earth causing it to be off by many yards. Another phenomenon produced by the sun could be even more disruptive. Known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), these solar explosions propel bursts of particles and electromagnetic fluctuations into Earth's atmosphere. Those fluctuations could induce electric fluctuations at ground level that could blow out transformers in power grids. The CME's particles can also collide with crucial electronics onboard a satellite and disrupt its systems.
“In an increasingly technological world, where almost everyone relies on cell phones and GPS controls not just your in-car map system, but also airplane navigation and the extremely accurate clocks that govern financial transactions, space weather is a serious matter.”
Rest easy my friends, you may die in 2012, but it is very unlikely you will die simmering like a brisket in an oven as the result of a solar flare. Fear not the moronic prediction of death by solar flare!
Oh, and by the by, not to be complete obnoxious, but if a solar flare creates chaos with cell phones or GPS devices, I’m safe; I own neither!
No comments:
Post a Comment