2012 Apocalypse Predictions!
Urban Legends, Myths, and Science Trumors (True Rumors) about Solar Flares —
[Feb. 18]
Despite all the excitement about Solar Flares this week, I wouldn’t go running to your bomb shelter getting ready for some sort of John Cusack 2012 apocalypse movie moment in real-time modern era history just yet. The sky is not falling officially yet — but according to true rumors in Scientific journals, last Monday NASA scientists identified an X-class Solar Flare that sent a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) hurtling from the Sun yesterday toward Earth. Such an ejection, as scientists refer to the winds produced by the Sun, are often associated with other froms of solar activity, most notably solar flares.
What’s more, NASA expects two more today — making even celebrity gossip websites like Ecorazzi speculate that Hollywood star celebs like Ashton Kutcher — who believe the end of the world is in sight — speculate the handsome hunk (who quips he works out and trains all the time to get ready for the Apocalypse in 2012) might just be right.
But how much truth is in the rumors that solar flares might bring on the end of the world as we know it?
Most coronal mass ejections originate from active regions on Sun’s surface, such as groupings of sunspots associated with frequent solar flares. What we know right now is NASA identified the largest solar flare of its kind in four years, a flare capable of producing as much as about a sixth of the total energy output of the Sun each second. That’s a lot of energy!
A Flare of this magnitude occurs once about every 10.7 years, known as a solar cycle, and while this sort of space weather may not interrupt a family picnic, it will cause disruptions with spacecraft, satellites, and other radio communication NASA says. When the Sun produced the last flare of this magnitude in December 2006 it was quite a sight, and “should the new storm prove as powerful, it could be a preview of what’s expected this year and in 2012, as the sun reaches an expected maximum in its natural cycle of activity,” reports Wired.
On the upswing, such a flare can cause a beautiful display on Earth. Almost as beautiful as the ladies think actor Ashton Kutcher looks shirtless. As the space weather disrupts the magnetic field on Earth, it produces some beautiful lights in the northern hemisphere, known as that little old science phenomenon called the Aurora Borealis that puts the amazing red, blue, green, purple, gold, and orange colored lights at night into the dark and starry black northern skies.
“Thanks to the biggest solar flare in four years, millions of skywatchers should be able to see the aurora borealis (or northern lights) this week.” ABC News reports.
This year’s cycle has produced an class X-2 Flare, one of the largest of its kind, accompanied by three coronal mass ejections, one of which hit yesterday. NASA expects the next two to hit today. The flare is noted as the largest flare in this year’s solar cycle, but still mild for a typical solar cycle. So should we be expecting brownouts, satellites falling out of the sky, and crazy space weather for the next year? Unlikely. We’ll continue to see sunspots during this peak of the solar cycle, but NASA expects little else from it.
Solar Flares are quite normal, in fact. Flares happen because the Sun has a magnetic field with a complicated shape. Earth’s magnetic field acts like a shield, with a north and south pole and neat lines describing a spherical shape with a large indentation at either end. When an ejection reaches Earth, the energy disrupts Earth’s field and can cause some havoc with electronics, satellites, spacecraft and such, but often little more than some pretty lights in the north. An extremely large solar flare might bring the lights further south than usual, but that’s about it.
So if you’re one of the lucky few who has an opportunity to see the effects of this year’s flare, go outside to enjoy it. And if your radio goes on the fritz for a moment or you lose the ability to watch 2012 apocalypse theme moves on your big screen TV beamed in on demand from sites like Comcast, Verizon, or Netflix, take the opportunity to make like Ashton Kutcher and enjoy the outdoor scenery instead of the indoor movie couch potato scene.
Watch the movie trailer for 2012 starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Danny Glover here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9sqrtDLmXY