Astronomers Say a 600,000 Mile Wide 'Bird Wing' Solar Eruption Could Hit Earth Tomorrow
E. Gibson. Getty Images.One thing we don't lack for on this little dust speck in an ordinary corner of a unexceptional corner of your average, run-of-the-mill galaxy is reasons to be fearful it could all end at any moment.
In fact, there have been five Mass Extinction events in our planetary history. The most recent one was 65 million million years ago. And while it wiped out 75% of all life on the planet, it doesn't hold a flickering candle to the Permian-Triassic Extinction of 252 million years ago, that snuffed 90-95%. So it's not a matter of whether or not our species is standing it its own grave. It's simply a matter of how long we'll be standing here before the universe gives us a big, lethal reminder of our own mortality.
In the past, living things on this rock have been done in by super volcanoes, ocean anoxia (the water loses oxygen), ocean acidification, a few dozen ice ages, catastrophic floods, the magnetic poles shifting, and the cosmos brushing Earth off the plate with 1,000mph bean balls like the ones that wiped out the dinosaurs.
But while we're worrying about those causes, the biggest threat to our continued existence is right over head, staring us in the face every day from dawn to dusk. To the sun, we're just a fly buzzing in orbit around it. And it could swat us into oblivion at any moment with a flick of one molten, plasma finger. And according to the people who are educated enough to actuall worry about such things, that great cosmic fly swatter might already be heading right for us:
Source - On Tuesday, astronomers watched as a vast 'bird wing' eruption sent waves of superheated plasma surging across the sun's northern hemisphere.
At over 600,000 miles long (one million km), the filament of solar material was more than twice as long as the distance from the Earth to the moon.
Now, scientists predict that part of this filament eruption could hit Earth tomorrow.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, aurora chaser Jure Atanackov predicted that the full force of this eruption could trigger a severe or even extreme geomagnetic storm, the highest level on official rating systems.
Stunning video recorded by NASA's solar observation satellites shows the moment that filaments of plasma 75 times larger than Earth peeled away from the sun in a pair of sweeping 'wings'.
Most of the material was shot out of the sun's north pole, so it will mostly avoid Earth.
However, astronomers say that Earth will probably receive a glancing blow from the wake of the passing storm.
Well OK, then. It won't drill us in the ear flap; it'll just be a brush back pitch. So nothing to worry about. Keep moving, citizens. Let's all go home and let the astronomers do their thing.
Except for one thing. This is exactly the kind of thing they'd tell us if their really was something to worry about. This isn't some icy rock NASA can send Harry Stamper and Bear and Rockhound up to blast into space gravel. This is a million kilometer-long tongue of hot, fiery death that will cremate you and turn all your possessions into smoke like they were made of flash paper. Why be completely candid about the truth of that? The smart thing to do - and I credit these people with being smart - would just be to let us all stay blissfully ignorant so we can all go quietly.
Especially when the super wealthy and powerful have somewhere to ride out this catastrophe:
It would be nice to find out I'm wrong about this. Not that I think I'll live forever. Nor do I want to. And if I'm going to check out, getting incinerated in an instant along with everyone else probably wouldn't be the worst way to go. But for now, I'd like to make it just long enough to see if the Celtics can come back. And to catch the last four episodes of Andor, which I hear are incredible. But since there's a good chance this is my last blog post, it's been a good run. See you in the afterlife.
