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The Sun seethes with energy. Now and then, it lashes Earth with X rays from powerful flares or hurls billion-ton hammerblows called coronal mass ejections. These events can disrupt power grids, degrade oil pipelines, and introduce errors into navigation systems. But the Sun's energy blasts aren't all bad, for they can create the eerie, hypnotic, and beautiful displays scientists call aurorae — better known as the Northern Lights.

The trick to seeing an aurora is knowing when to look, and that's where Astronomy can help. Our new space weather center features a unique map that plots the probability of seeing an aurora anywhere in the world. We update the map every 15 minutes based on solar wind information transmitted to Earth by a NASA satellite.

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Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:935, old post ID:10496

fcbayer wrote: The Sun seethes with energy. Now and then, it lashes Earth with X rays from powerful flares or hurls billion-ton hammerblows called coronal mass ejections. These events can disrupt power grids, degrade oil pipelines, and introduce errors into navigation systems. But the Sun's energy blasts aren't all bad, for they can create the eerie, hypnotic, and beautiful displays scientists call aurorae — better known as the Northern Lights.

The trick to seeing an aurora is knowing when to look, and that's where Astronomy can help. Our new space weather center features a unique map that plots the probability of seeing an aurora anywhere in the world. We update the map every 15 minutes based on solar wind information transmitted to Earth by a NASA satellite.

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It won't be long until we start projecting 'space weather' as regularly as normal weather. Solar storms affect us more than we think, I wouldn't be suprised if in about 10 years we've attributed a lot of things to solar storms that were before unexplained.

Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:935, old post ID:10516