Skip to main content
40 votes
Accepted

Is the dark side of the earth protected from the risks of solar flares?

Nope Solar flares don't work like "A massive blob of hot gas hitting the bright side of the Earth" It's more similar to "A stream of ionized plasma that 'hits' the Earth's magnetic ...
Arcturus's user avatar
  • 2,716
8 votes
Accepted

What forces expelled these huge clouds, then blocked further progress, yet allowed it to maintain its threads?

This was a coronal mass ejection. Those 1973 astronomers weren't looking at the picture correctly. They didn't have the tools at that time to look at the picture correctly. Coronal mass ejections (...
David Hammen's user avatar
  • 36.3k
8 votes
Accepted

How does a Super-Massive Black Hole 'flare'?

The flare happens just outside the black hole. Matter which aproaches a black hole but not perfectly straight on doesn't fall into it immediately. It gets pulled around the black hole, just as a ...
Steve Linton's user avatar
  • 10.4k
7 votes

Where do Coronal Mass Ejections go?

Coronal Mass ejections are not easy to detect from Earth (until they hit the ionosphere and cause a geomagnetic storm) The first was discovered by a space-based solar observatory in 1971. They are, ...
James K's user avatar
  • 129k
6 votes
Accepted

Does coronal mass ejection include radiation at optical wavelengths?

Coronal mass ejections consist of a very hot, but thin, plasma. Their very weak intrinsic emission would be dominated by ultraviolet and X-ray lines and bremsstrahlung continuum. There is very little ...
ProfRob's user avatar
  • 162k
6 votes
Accepted

Difference in creation of solar flares and CME?

The point of my comment was that the connection between CMEs and flares would make for a good 20 page research paper in a college course. The connections are still only understood at a kind of ...
Ken G's user avatar
  • 5,334
5 votes
Accepted

Has the rate of time passage been measured?

Yes, there are two good examples that I know of that have been used to show that a natural phenomenon appears to show time dilation that is consistent with the redshift that they are observed at. ...
ProfRob's user avatar
  • 162k
5 votes
Accepted

What online tools are available to investigate and classify solar eruptions?

How are these flares tracked after they've been detected? Since you already linked to https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/16786/13663, I won't belabor the differences between a solar flare and ...
honeste_vivere's user avatar
5 votes

Directionality of solar flares

First, I have provided some background on these phenomena at: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/16786/13663 Solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are not the same phenomena. I am aware ...
honeste_vivere's user avatar
4 votes
Accepted

Can a planet's gravity rip out its moon's atmosphere?

It's probably rare that moons have atmospheres to begin with. Planets don't generate solar flares. Planets emit thermal radiation as a result of their heat and during formation and collision planets ...
userLTK's user avatar
  • 24.2k
4 votes
Accepted

Solar flare generate energetic protons. Where do the electrons go?

The solar wind, and more generally plasma in space is not charged on average; it is electrically neutral. That means you have the positively charged ions and the corresponding amount of electrons. In ...
planetmaker's user avatar
  • 21.4k
4 votes
Accepted

What would be the effect of a large solar flare on motor vehicles?

Never drive a car which is larger than a football field during a solar storm Otherwise, don't worry about it. The answer to Does a geomagnetic storm visibly deflect a compass? shows the plot below ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 30.7k
3 votes

Is life (as we know it) even possible around M-class stars?

Check the ocean floor If ionizing radiation is a concern, deep water is a very effective shield. It's theorized that life on Earth started around hydrothermal vents in the dark depths of the ocean, ...
Darth Pseudonym's user avatar
3 votes
Accepted

Any active solar X-ray imager in orbit?

The Hinode satellite has an active x-ray telescope that is routinely used to image the sun. And the NuSTAR extreme x-ray telescope can also be used for sun imaging (although its main job is looking ...
James K's user avatar
  • 129k
3 votes
Accepted

Does Earth's magnetic field become stronger when a solar flare hits?

No, but the magnetic dipole of Earth has a field strength that increases with closer distance. On the direct line between Earth and Sun the magnetic field strength is always $B(r) = M/r^3$ where $M$ ...
AtmosphericPrisonEscape's user avatar
3 votes

How bad could we reasonably expect a solar flare to impact earth, and what can be done to mitigate the impact?

It would be good business for the news industry: sky lights, plane crashes, exploding grid transformers, city blackouts, satellite damage, long, electricity-carrying wires would spark, start fires and ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
  • 4,356
3 votes
Accepted

Is it possible for a solar flare in one star to influence the chances of a solar flare in another star?

I'd say it's an open question awaiting some observational evidence that it can happen. It presumably would depend a lot on what kind of situation you are looking for, and what would you call a flare ...
Ken G's user avatar
  • 5,334
2 votes

Can hot Jupiters cause solar flares?

Sun is more than one thousand times the mass of Jupiter, so it seems unlikely that even a very close approach by a "hot Jupiter" to its host star would cause a flare, and especially not a superflare.
Professor O's user avatar
2 votes
Accepted

Can hot Jupiters cause solar flares?

Just going off the Wikipedia article you posted, it says the hot jupiter superflare theory was abandoned. The flares were initially explained by postulating giant planets in very close orbits, ...
userLTK's user avatar
  • 24.2k
2 votes

Detecting anomalies from the sun from home

The most extreme solar flares are visible as bright marks on the face of the sun and the most extreme CME are apparent as aurorae even at low latitudes. Detecting CME as they leave the sun is ...
James K's user avatar
  • 129k
2 votes

Physical properties of the stellar corona?

...how typical is the solar corona? The Sun is remarkably "average" (e.g., see https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/262732/59023). So my best guess is that the corona is also remarkably &...
honeste_vivere's user avatar
2 votes
Accepted

What could be the cause of solar "campfires"?

When all we have is a hammer, sometimes we run the risk of thinking everything is a nail - and sometimes that naivety can lead to new discoveries in lieu of better explanations/theories. In terms of ...
Daddy Kropotkin's user avatar
2 votes
Accepted

How to access the raw time-series dataset of GOES X-Ray Flux?

You can use SunPy, check the Retrieving and analyzing GOES X-Ray Sensor (XRS) data example. There it explains how to download data with a time range and if wanted selecting the GOES satellite number. ...
dvdgc13's user avatar
  • 393
2 votes

Strength of the relationship between very large solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and solar proton events?

First, have you looked through my answer at: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/16786/13663? First, is my understanding that either a large flare or a large CME could have caused a large solar ...
honeste_vivere's user avatar
2 votes

Solar flare generate energetic protons. Where do the electrons go?

Their destination might be possibly either of Winding up one way mission to the space and the speeding particle is free of the Earth's magnetic field, and if the collision happens to set it on a ...
Aung Satt's user avatar
  • 165
2 votes
Accepted

Are there any known G-type stars that have a flare star variable type?

I hesitate to call it a "flare star", since I can't find it described as such in the literature, but (for example) HD 39150 (Type GV3) is described as an "eruptive variable" and ...
James K's user avatar
  • 129k
1 vote

Where do these materials on the Sun come from, if not nothingness?

Good question. The material comes from the Sun, is ejected into the loop quickly, and slowly rains back down. In the linked video at timestamp 0:11 you see the complete Sun and the flare erupting on ...
planetmaker's user avatar
  • 21.4k
1 vote

Do solar flares have a noticeable effect on asteroid orbits?

Short answer: No. Long Answer: Ha, no. The solar sunspot cycle (~11 yr) affects a significant fraction of the photosphere, to greater and lesser amounts, and it’s a peak-to-valley difference of ...
caInstrument's user avatar
1 vote

Does the magnetosphere of Jupiter protect the Galilean Moons from solar flares?

Indeed yes! Jupiter magnetosphere does protect the Galilean moons from cosmic rays and solar flares etc. Check out these articles: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/jupiter-shields-europa-...
Nilay Ghosh's user avatar
  • 5,253
1 vote

Directionality of solar flares

I have just found this paper which seems very relevant: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1350448799000633?via%3Dihub "Particles arising at some remote location from the sun ...
Slarty's user avatar
  • 359

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible