::|:| abandoned utica insane asylum |:|::
Photos courtesy of somavenus, in one of my favorite visual communities,
This is a undated photo made available in London, Tuesday Oct. 28, 2003, of one of the biggest solar flares which erupted from the Sun, threatening to disrupt power and communications on Earth. After a week of intense activity on the Sun a massive flare bust from the star, according to space weather scientists in America and Europe. Superheated gas and energy, called a coronal mass ejection, exploded from the Sun’s surface travelling at five million miles per hour.(AP Photo/Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, pa)
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Scientists again warned that communications on Earth could be disrupted this week by another spectacular eruption on the surface of the Sun and that it might even hamper firefighting efforts in California.
“It’s headed straight for us like a freight train,” said John Kohl, a solar astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. “This is the real thing.”
Predictions are it could strike Earth’s magnetic field by midday Wednesday.
The explosion of gas and charged particles into space from the corona, the outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere, isn’t harmful to people. But it can knock out satellite communications, which some emergency crews are relying on in battling California’s wildfires.
Similar solar events in recent years have disrupted television transmissions, GPS navigation, oil pipeline controls and even the flow of electricity along power lines.
Space weather forecasters first warned of that possibility last week, when a previous solar flare erupted, and then they saw a new sunspot region developing in another region of the sun’s face.
The cloud of charged particles from last week’s eruption struck Earth “with only a glancing blow,” Kohl said. It disrupted some airline communications.
But Kohl said scientists observed the biggest such explosion in 30 years shortly before 6 a.m. EST Tuesday. It produced a particle cloud 13 times larger than Earth and hurtled through the solar system at more than 1 million miles per hour.
The resulting geomagnetic storm could be ranked among the most powerful of its kind and last for 24 hours.
It is expected to disrupt the communications satellites and high frequency radios.
In southern California, wildfires already have knocked out many microwave communication antennas on the ground, making satellite communications important to emergency efforts. Researchers said safety personnel might encounter communications interference.
Federal researchers said they already have turned off instruments and taken other precautions with science satellites.
A positive note: strong geomagnetic storms can produce colorful auroras in the night sky visible as far south as Texas and Florida beginning late Wednesday.
Sunspots and solar storms tend to occur in 11-year cycles; the current cycle peaked in late 2000.
Scientists compared the latest flare to the “Bastille Day storm” that occurred in July 2000.
“The Bastille Day storm produced considerable disruption to both ground and space high-tech systems,” said Bill Murtagh, a space weather forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
From the AP wire, courtesy of Yahoo. By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer.
I just finished watching Colorado retire #33. I’ve been crying for 20 minutes.
Bawling.
Makes a girl wonder if maybe she takes hockey too seriously.
| My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul |
|---|
| kebechet goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Evil Ash. |
| always_in_drag gives you 8 blue root beer-flavoured wafers. |
| alyra_ryvre gives you 3 dark green pineapple-flavoured gummy fruits. |
| bete_noire gives you 16 brown strawberry-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. |
| cadmus gives you 5 orange blueberry-flavoured nuggets. |
| drauku gives you 12 red-orange passionfruit-flavoured gummy worms. |
| lovelyclio gives you 13 brown watermelon-flavoured gumdrops. |
| pinknose gives you 16 pink blueberry-flavoured pieces of taffy. |
| sarahlicious gives you 1 purple blueberry-flavoured hard candies. |
| tanthe tricks you! You lose 69 pieces of candy! |
| votum_succendo tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy! |
| kebechet ends up with 4 pieces of candy. |
| Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. |
There. Now I think I’ve harassed you all.
| My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul |
|---|
| kebechet goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Moina Bergson Mathers. |
| 3rdandharrison gives you 7 white strawberry-flavoured gummies. |
| bete_noire gives you 7 brown strawberry-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. |
| birdofparadox gives you 18 blue tropical-flavoured gummy bears. |
| blkchristopher tricks you! You lose 2 pieces of candy! |
| danajoy gives you 12 light green coconut-flavoured gummies. |
| drunken_heretik gives you 8 red-orange licorice-flavoured wafers. |
| krimhum gives you 13 light orange lemon-flavoured gummy bears. |
| lady_babalon gives you 3 light orange spearmint-flavoured gummy worms. |
| lilahwild tricks you! You lose 60 pieces of candy! |
| tutubird tricks you! You get a broken balloon. |
| kebechet ends up with 6 pieces of candy, and a broken balloon. |
| Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. |
| My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul |
|---|
| kebechet goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as a wire-hanger-wielding Joan Crawford. |
| arisbe gives you 19 dark green raspberry-flavoured gummies. |
| blackrayne gives you 3 brown strawberry-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. |
| desecrate tricks you! You lose 19 pieces of candy! |
| eridanea gives you 19 tan cinnamon-flavoured hard candies. |
| kiwitrip tricks you! You get a broken balloon. |
| msdemandypants gives you 13 yellow pineapple-flavoured gummies. |
| nocturnalfright gives you 14 yellow coconut-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. |
| poohkenstein tricks you! You get a thumbtack. |
| redwitche tricks you! You get a block of wood. |
| sarahl210 gives you 12 dark green passionfruit-flavoured gumdrops. |
| kebechet ends up with 61 pieces of candy, a broken balloon, a thumbtack, and a block of wood. |
| Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. |
Arisbe! I think that these raspberry candies truly indicate that we are karmically entwined. >;)
Your medieval name is: Elizabeth. This name may not
be exotic or out of this world, but you are
powerful and demand respect. You’re in charge
and productive and a control freak. Don’t feel
bad – you’ve got the clout.
What is your Medieval name?
brought to you by Quizilla
Funny.
Plucked from tutubird.
