The breathtaking new images of CME

Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:33 am » by **Swissbrit**

The breathtaking new images that reveal the violence of a solar flare - and the beautiful aurora it created on earth

Radiation from the eruption set to hit earth within hours, creating a 'moderate geomagnetic storm'
Incredible phenomenon could give new insight into how solar eruptions affect electricity supplied on earth

By Mark Prigg

PUBLISHED: 13:22 GMT, 5 September 2012 | UPDATED: 13:32 GMT, 5 September 2012

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Nasa today released stunning video showing a 500,000 mile long 'solar whip' on the surface of the sun - and the beautiful aurora it created on earth.

Captured by from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the images show in unprecedented detail a very long, whip-like solar filament extending over half a million miles in a long arc above the sun’s surface.

Scroll down for video
The August 31 2012 coronal mass ejection shown in four different extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. It caused no disruption on earth, but did cause aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3.

The August 31 2012 coronal mass ejection shown in four different extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. It caused no disruption on earth, but did cause aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3.

The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second.

The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow, causing aurora to appear on monday evening.

WHAT IS A 'SOLAR WHIP'?

A 'solar whip' or filament is caused when a red glowing loop of plasma erupts, releasing the plasma out in huge loops hundreds of thousands of miles into space.

The filaments are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona.

The 'whip' was a filament, cooler clouds of solar material that are tethered above the sun’s surface by unstable magnetic forces.

The images and video (below), which covers August 6 to 8, 2012 show the filament as a darker strand that has been in view for several days.

It the snaps, sending radiation hurtling towards earth.

At the time, Nasa revealed a video of the activity.

'Towards the end of the video part of the filament seems to break away, but its basic length and shape seem to have remained mostly intact,' says Nasa.

The video, which condenses three hours of activity, also reveals the action in dramatic detail in extreme ultraviolet light.

The NOAA spaceweather prediction center warned that a cloud of radiation from the eruption would reach Earth today.

The radiation cloud will create a minor to moderate geomagnetic storm, bringing the northern lights to parts of North America, it said.

To prove the point, Nasa today revealed the image below, showing the aurora in breathtaking beauty.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z25f0jxuC6

Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:38 am » by **Lowsix**

Fossileysed,

if you happen to read this,
Do you get to see the Aurora
when they occur at lower latitudes??

Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:47 am » by **Fossileyesed**

hold on,i'll go look............................yes
they have been active for 5 days running.i havent been doing to much night photography lately so i dont got no pics,lol
they arent bright at the moment.sort of greenish horizon.
:cheers:

Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:50 am » by **Lowsix**

Fossileyesed wrote:hold on,i'll go look............................yes
they have been active for 5 days running.i havent been doing to much night photography lately so i dont got no pics,lol
they arent bright at the moment.sort of greenish horizon.

HOLY FUCK..thats cool bro.

Well, keep an eye out of the next day or so and report back
with brighter images if you can catch any cropping up..

Wow..hahahah awesome..thanks.

Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:29 am » by **Nihilgeist**

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