A mysterious shock wave cracked Earth's magnetosphere 19 dec night
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https://bit.ly/3VrJ7xO)
A mysterious shock wave cracked Earth's magnetosphere Monday
night, December 19. Magnetosphere is the region that protects the
planet from harmful space radiation.
Although the shockwave's origin is unknown, astronomers think
it came from an ejection of energetic and highly magnetized,
superheated gas discharged from the sun, which is also called
a coronal mass ejection (CME).
According to Space Weather, the ejection may have been unleashed
from sunspot AR3165, which fired at least eight solar flares into
space on December 14 that caused blackouts over the Atlantic Ocean.
Even though scientists are not yet sounding the alarm, a crack can
remain open for hours and allow solar winds to flow through.
The sunspot was seen sizzling on December 14 and then discharged
an M6-class explosion that struck Earth. M-class flares are
classified as medium-sized but these occurrences can create short
radio blackouts like what happened over the Atlantic.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Solar
Dynamics Observatory, a probe analyzing Earth's sun, caught the
eruptions from the sunspot - a dark area cooler than other portions
of the surface, which pours out streams of plasma.
Brilliant flashes of light were spotted coming from the sunspot,
which possibly sent the shock wave toward Earth. Shock waves
happen when a rapid pulse of solar wind rakes through the lagging
solar wind. They are made up of compressed and heated gases.
CMEs can expel billions of tons of corona material from the sun's
surface. The material contains plasma and magnetic fields. These
eruptions have the power to cause space weather that can intervene
with satellites and power grids on Earth and can be detrimental
to unprotected astronauts.
Earth's magnetosphere is situated in its magnetic field, which
stretches thousands of miles into space. Its magnetism affects
everything from worldwide communication to animal migration
and weather patterns. The sun appears to be moving into an active
period of its 11-year cycle of activity that started in 2019 and is
predicted to peak in 2025.
Solar flares, which are blasts of electromagnetic radiation that
travel at the speed of light, normally reach Earth within eight
minutes of appearing from the sun's atmosphere.
The most powerful class is X flares, followed by M class ones,
which are the ones seen on December 14.
"Three more M flares: An M6, M3 and M2 all from AR3165. That
makes 8 M flares so far today. They seem to be getting bigger, is
an X flare in the offing? Stay tuned," Solar physicist Keith Strong
wrote on Twitter.
The shock wave that cracked Earth's magnetosphere could trigger
geomagnetic storms. These geomagnetic storms can warp Earth's
magnetic field and send satellites crashing to the planet. They can
also destroy electrical systems and disable the internet.
Geomagnetic storms happen after a solar flare if the exchange
of energy from the sun reaches the space surrounding Earth through
solar wind.
The biggest geomagnetic storm in recent history was the Carrington
Event in 1859, which unleashed roughly the same energy as 10 billion
one-megaton atomic bombs.
After crashing into Earth, the strong stream of solar particles fried
telegraph systems around the globe and created auroras brighter than
the light of the full moon that appeared as far south as the
Caribbean.
If a similar incident were to occur today, scientists warned that
it would make trillions of dollars worth of damage, spark widespread
blackouts and imperil thousands of lives.
NASA reported that a geomagnetic storm in 1989 ejected a billion-ton
plume of gas that produced a blackout across the entire Canadian
province of Quebec.
But this may not even scratch the surface of what the sun is capable
of hurling at Earth.
Scientists are also examining the cause of a series of unexpected
and massive spikes in radiation levels registered in ancient tree
rings across Earth's history.
The theory is that the spikes could have originated from solar
storms 80 times more forceful than the Carrington Event.
