WEBVTT - Space Weather - What's That?! 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.560 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.160 There's Charles w Chuck, Brian over there, and Jerry's not here. 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.960 But we're going to make it through somehow, uh, in 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.479 this edition of Stuff You Should Know. Um, I'm going 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:28.040 to call this one Chuck the Icarus Edition, because we 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.800 made it through the Sun Podcast just hanging on by 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:37.360 our fingernails before and through just an astounding act of hubris. 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.040 We're going to do another Sun related episode. Yeah. We 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:42.760 talked about a lot of this stuff in the Sun one. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:45.960 Yeah we did, but I don't think we went anywhere 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.320 near into this kind of detail. So I'm feeling okay 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.599 about redoing this, doing something that that's like kind of 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:56.280 a re redo a little bit. Okay, are you feeling okay? 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.080 I'm feeling great. Oh good, I'm glad to hear that. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:01.640 I don't know if I would say I'm feeling great, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:06.920 but that's good that you are at least so. Um, 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.399 we're talking about the Sun, believe it or not, and 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.920 we're talking about a specific thing on the Sun called 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:15.679 solar flares, which you may have heard of, but you 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.199 may not know much about unless apparently you've already listened 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:21.199 to our Sun episode. But um, we'll talk a little 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:23.440 bit about solar flawers. But one of the things that 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.760 that I think is extraordinarily interesting about solar flowers is 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:31.000 they belong to a larger category called space weather. And 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.560 I am just as jazz as can be about the 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.760 idea of space weather, aren't you? Uh not as jazz 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.280 as you, I don't think, but I do think this 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.440 is this is pretty neat stuff, and I'm glad we're 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.759 we're getting a chance to make it more clear than 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.160 we did before. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a good that's 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.120 a good point. I'm sure we talked about this before, 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.360 but it's probably extremely confusing. So yeah, we're going to 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.320 clear all that up. So space weather, especially stuff that 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.680 comes from the Sun, come mostly from the surface or 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:07.920 the atmosphere of the Sun, which is extraordinarily active. It's 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.880 extraordinarily hot, so hot, chuck. Um that the surface of 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.760 the Sun is made of plasma, which a lot of 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.239 people consider the fourth state of matter. It's like a gas, 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:22.079 but it's a special kind of gas that um where 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.560 the particles are as jazzed about being alive as I 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.799 am about the idea of space weather. That's right. They're 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:32.000 supercharged and when they are moving around, they create something 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.520 called metic magnetic fields. Not the band, the thing, even 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:40.120 though it is a great band name and a great band. Uh, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:45.040 and they are gonna you know, magnetic fields have their 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:47.320 own effect on all these particles and what's going on 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.560 in there. Yeah. So the the energetic electrons that have 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.200 been stripped from the atoms, creating electrons and ions which 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.520 have a charge, they create magnetic fields, and then the 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.600 magnetic fields they create have an effect on them, um 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.320 so that they tend to follow these magnetic field lines. 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.200 But the the stuff is so energetic and so hot 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.600 that the magnetic fields that develop aren't like this kind 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.960 of orderly lines that keep their distance, you know, nice 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.840 and tidy like you imagine like a magnetic field to exist. 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:22.960 Like these things are like roiling, curling, twisting. It's just 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:28.320 a big orgy of magnetism up there. That's the only 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.480 way to put it. That's it. I had no choice 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.240 but to say it like that. Yeah, and then, uh, 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.240 you know, this stuff is going on. It's called solar activity, 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.320 and it depends on when you're observing the Sun, it's 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.160 going to be more or less active. There's a there's 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.840 a cycle, it's called the solar cycle that happens about 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.720 every eleven years when the magnetic north and south pole switch. 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:55.800 And within that cycle, UM, there's something called a solar maximum, 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.920 which is the period kind of where the biggest show 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.480 is going on. Yeah, there's also a solar minimum, but 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.040 the solar maximum is UM. We're in solar cycle twenty 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.080 five apparently, and the solar maximum is coming up on 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:12.520 in two thousand. That's very appropriately UM. And so as 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.440 we're reaching the solar maximum, there's gonna be a lot 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.520 more of what people call sun spots. By people, I 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:23.840 mean astronomers, of course, um. And sun spots are these 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.320 kind of darkish areas on the surface of the Sun. 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:29.800 They can be little, tiny dots, they can be kind 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.920 of big, but they look really really small and they 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.600 look dark. UM. And the reason they look dark is 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.200 because they're relatively cool compared to the rest of the 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:43.039 surface that's around them. Um. But even still, they're super 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.799 duper hot and they're still pretty bright comparatively speaking. Yeah, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:51.960 Like a sun spot is about degrees fahrenheit. Because we're 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.680 talking about the sun so cool is a relative term here. Uh. 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:57.800 And as far as bright goes, it's about that's about 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.760 ten times as bright as a full moon. So if 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.000 you go out at night in a full moon and 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.479 it kind of feels like a little cool daylight, a 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:09.159 sun spot is about ten times brighter than that. Right, 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.640 So you shouldn't go looking at these things. No, No, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:13.640 that's a really good thing to say. Is like, we're 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:15.320 talking about a lot of stuff that's gonna make you 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.440 want to look at the sun. Don't do it. Just 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.800 go online and look at pictures of this stuff on 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:23.120 the sun or videos even we have videos thanks to 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.800 the good people at NASA, but um, the sun spots, 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.599 So it really just goes to show you how hot 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:30.440 and bright the surface of the Sun is. That these 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.400 things seem cool and dark by comparisons. And yeah, and 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.240 they are really really big, So the width of them 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.880 can get to be up to thirty thous miles across, 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.159 which is about the width of Neptune, which is huge, 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.479 about four times the width of Earth. Um, and still 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.520 they look super dinky compared to the Sun. And the 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.600 reason that these things are cooler, chuck, is because they're 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.400 spots of magnetism that are so strong that they keep 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.640 the heat inside the Sun from poking out right there. 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.640 That's how strong the magnetic energy is in these areas. Yeah, 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.440 and that's right. And because they're magnets, they form in 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:13.000 little pairs like little buddies, and they appear on the 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.240 surface of the Sun. And what we're actually looking at 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.080 if you can like go to uh NASA or whatever, 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:19.920 like you said, and see a picture of a sun spot, 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.600 what you're looking at is sort of like the two 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:27.359 ends of um. If you think about these magnetic lines there, 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.080 these magnetism it's like a filament like a rope. Just 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.200 picture them twisted up basically running beneath the sun surface. 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.360 And there are some really really cool pictures and stuff. 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.560 And then one end of this sun spot is positive, 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.760 the other end is negative, and it's they sort of 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.400 act like rings of a tree a little bit. As 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.080 far as astronomers can like observe these things. The first 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.599 sun spots of each cycle are in the midd latitudes 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.479 and then they start moving around during the cycle, so 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.880 they can kind of see where you are in the 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.839 solar cycle by where and how many of these sun 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.719 spots there are. Yeah, so the more the closer to 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:08.960 the solar maximum you are, the more sun spots they're 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:10.720 going to be, and the closer they're going to be 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.360 to the equator. So they tell a lot about where 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.480 where the Sun is in its solar cycle. Um. But 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.240 the thing is when these magnetic field lines twists and 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:25.640 and curve and turn, um, they actually can interact with 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.040 other magnetic field lines. And when that happens, when they cross, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.160 kind of like the proton streams crossing in Ghostbusters. When 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:39.080 that happens, UM, something called the solar flare, uh happens. 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.840 It's a it's an event on the Sun, and it 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:47.000 is such a huge, magnificently energetic event that it actually 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.120 can affect Earth things on Earth because it's just so 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.840 massive in such a huge release and sudden release of energy. 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.080 I had a Ghostbusters ref penciled end later on if 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.720 you believe that. Oh, I can't wait to it's been 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.280 a long time, when we both have to we have 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.160 one each. Um, Yeah, it has. And it's been a 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.920 while since we listed dates by the years before since 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.360 Ghostbusters came in. Mind has a data attached to it, 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:15.280 and you'll just have to wait. I can't wait. What 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.480 a great episode this is shaping out to be. So 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.560 these explosions, the magnetic fields are driving these explosions. And 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.200 if you you know, if you're lay people like us, 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.240 it's you can either look at this is something that's 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.040 kind of simple to look at on its surface, or 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.040 if you really want to get into it, it's pretty 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.120 complex and not easily understood. But the simple answer is, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.360 because we're talking about magnetic fields, is that these adjacent 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.560 fields are pointing in opposite directions and they basically wipe 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:50.600 each other out and that releases all this magnetic energy 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:54.760 and all that heat, uh, kind of everywhere that surrounds it. 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.960 It just goes spew spew, spew energy heat shooting at 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.960 you from the sun. Right, So people have figured this out. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.640 Finally that has to do with, like um, the lines 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.800 of magnetism interacting with one another and annihilating one another. 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.240 But there's a big mystery attached to this, or there 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.520 there was for many many years, and that is that. Okay, 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.640 so we understand magnetic annihilation. But to this point, we 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:23.760 thought it took about ten thousand years for two opposite 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.400 magnetic fields to annihilate one another. Well, we're talking about here, 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.199 these solar flares. They they annihilate one another and release 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.040 all this energy in a matter of minutes, maybe an 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.120 hour sometimes, So that doesn't quite job. And I think 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:43.280 back in the fifties some scientists started proposing a type 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:47.880 of magnetic energy released called magnetic reconnection. And that is 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:52.600 where magnetic field lines are so um twisty, turney writhey 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.400 and energetic that they can actually rip a field line 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.320 or like a magnetic field line can rip a part 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.040 and then reconnect with some neighbors. When that happens, it's 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.960 called magnetic reconnection. And they think that that is the 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:12.839 kind of energetic release that would account for a solar flare. Yeah, 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.280 and this, you know, this can cause all kinds of problems, 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.200 um for things in space and for people on Earth 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.040 even which we'll get to that stuff in more detail 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.040 a little bit later. But the point is these things 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:29.320 are super hot. Uh. They burst out to the Sun's corona, which, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.440 if you remember from our Sun Up episode, that's the 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:36.480 outermost atmosphere of the Sun. Rarefied gas is all over 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.960 the place out there, and it has I mean, this 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:43.280 is super super hot stuff. Like normally the temperature and 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.720 the corona is about you know, a few million degrees kelvin, 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.520 but inside that flare, we're talking ten to twenty million 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:55.040 degrees kelvin. And we always like to uh think of 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.520 things in terms of either big max or hydrogen bombs, 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.800 and in this case, it's got to be hydrogen bombs. 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.840 The amount of energy released during a solar flare is 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:09.240 about um it's millions of one hundred ton hydrogen bombs 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.400 all at once. Yeah, all at once. That's a really 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.360 that's a really important point too, you know, And I 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.920 feel like a real schmo for not having calculated that 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:24.760 in big bags calories. I know you could do calories, yeah, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.640 but what's the calorie of a solar flare. I don't know. 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.559 I didn't look and I feel like a jackass for 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.440 not having looked. Well, they go down easy, I know 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.880 that they do. So they're big, huge releases of energy, 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:42.400 and they're they're releases of radiation. They release um radiation 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:49.040 across the electromagnetic spectrum and that includes the visible light spectrum. 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.880 So these things just turned into these enormously bright flares, 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.080 which is where the name comes from. And we've figured 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.160 out how to classify, and there's a classifying system for 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.720 solar flares. It's a lot like the Richter scale UM, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.320 and that there's class A, B, C, M, and X. 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:09.920 That's not really like the Richter scale. What's like the 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.000 Richter scale is that each of those classes UH is 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:18.440 ten times more powerful than the previous class. Yeah, so 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.760 like an X is the highest, that is ten times 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.080 ten times in M, a hundred times of C. And 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.320 then once you get to X, uh. You know, if 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.160 they didn't go Y and Z, they just said, let's 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.199 stick with X and then let's cool. Sure, and it 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.200 sounds totally cool, and then let's start attaching numbers to 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.679 them so you can have you know, X, one, three, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.640 four and so on. Yeah, and so you know, each 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.679 each of those letter grades has a one through nine scale, 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.840 but X is so huge the excess scale goes beyond nine. 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.080 And I think the biggest, the biggest one that they've 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:58.880 ever caught so far, UM that's ever been recorded. UH 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.760 burned out the set answers that were recording it, and 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:06.040 the censors UM were overloaded at X eight And they 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.520 did some calculations after the fact and they figured out 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.000 that they may have been an X forty five flare. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.839 Back on November four, two thousand three. Yeah, this was 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.640 a big deal. This was it was something called the 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:21.840 Halloween Storms of two thousand three, which is kind of 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.440 a fun way. Uh, you know, it happened because it 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.559 was in October and near Halloween. So while the astronomers 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.680 got excited. And this one was a little bit weird 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:35.640 because although it was near the solar maximum, it was 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.280 two to three years after the peak, and it was 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.520 they said, NASA said it's generally a quiet period, so 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.920 they got really really excited. There were seventeen major flares 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:50.959 in that uh Halloween storm, and it was that's something 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:53.959 that is really going to get the white coats pretty 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.160 charged up. It totally is I mean an X forty 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.800 five that's just funding And I did a little bit 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:07.440 of of derivative calculation. Technically it would be a double 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.400 A five A five, you know. I saw weird different 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.439 numbers too, though. I saw that the center cut out 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:18.760 at fifteen and the estimate was X. Huh. It's really hard. 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.560 It's NASSY even had conflicting information. I think we should 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:24.640 point this out that you just set us up for 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.680 a c o A that I wanted to include. So 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.880 there's two things. Um, there's a lot of disagreement on 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.520 exactly what a solar flare is and the difference between 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.800 that and coronal mass ejections, which we'll talk about in 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:43.720 a little bit. And it's not necessarily a disagreement in astronomy, um. 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.000 It's a disagreement among people who report on stuff like 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.520 astronomy and don't fully understand what they're talking about. So 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:52.600 we ran into that quite a bit. So if we 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.920 get something mixed up, please forgive us. And then secondly, 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.400 when we're talking about some of these incredible um events 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.160 in physics terms, people who are in the field of 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.560 physics understand what they're talking about to one another, but 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.000 they have a great reputation of not figuring out how 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.440 to explain it to the rest of us, and so 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.160 they'll put it in different terms. And so when you're 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.240 researching this stuff, you're like, are you is this describing 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.080 a different thing than this over here or is it 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:24.840 just two different people describing the same thing two different 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.400 ways because they're not describing it in the true physics 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.560 way because I wouldn't understand. So we ran into that 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.200 a lot too, did you. Yeah, And it's frustrating to 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.720 literally see two different things both from NASA dot gov 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:41.880 on two different pages. But you know, who are we 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:46.040 too to call out NASA? I think we just did. 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:52.560 We'll call out Space Force, sure. But the point is this, 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.479 all of that really underscores the fact that our understanding 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.880 of the dynamics on the Sun are still really early 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:03.880 and premature, um, and we're still figuring a lot of 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.680 stuff out, including classifying the differences between solar flares and 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:12.000 coronal mass ejections. Yeah, and the light show and the 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.120 you know, the fund that the astronomers had in the 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.400 Halloween storms of two thousand three was immense, no matter 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:23.400 whether it was x X forty partied either way, they 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.880 did they surely did check. They had a little bit 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.880 of peach snops and went to tasted some half a 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.440 shot of brandy and then went to bed. That's right. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.360 Prove us wrong, nerds, prove us wrong. I say, we 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.480 take a break and then come back and talk about 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:43.600 those coronal mass ejections that I teased. Okay, we'll be 0:16:43.720 --> 0:17:12.040 right back, everybody, m all right. So I was saying 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.399 that it's difficult sometimes to discern the difference between a 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.560 solar flare, which is a huge burst of radiation across 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:23.040 the electromagnetic spectrum um all at once, which, by the way, 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.600 it takes just a matter of minutes eight minutes to 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.560 be exact to reach Earth because we're talking about carriers 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.800 of the electromagnetic force, which can travel at the speed 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.720 of light. So it's where I guess, eight minutes, but 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.400 at the speed of light from the Sun, right. Um. 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.800 Coronal mass ejections are something different. Even though they seem 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:49.240 to be associated with solar flares in a lot of cases, 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.439 they also seem to be able to kind of stand 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.400 on their own too. Either way, they're impressive in their 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.520 own right for sure. Yeah, I mean, I think if 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:04.000 you were talking in terms of um visual excitement, like 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.159 a solar mass I'm sorry, a coronal mass ejection is 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.119 like a full on Grateful Dead concert, whereas a solar 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.960 flair is like when John Mayer played with members of 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:18.000 the Grateful Dead. Oh that's mean I was gonna say 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.680 it was. It's just an Instagram video lesson of John 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:26.080 Mayor teaching you some Grateful Dead lick because you know well, 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.760 but sol solar flares are more magnificent than that. Um, 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.359 so man, that's mean. Sorry, Sorry, John Mayor. If you're listening. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.920 I'm not sorry, Josh. Sorry. He uh he's a nice guy, 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:41.639 he apparently, uh has I've seen some stuff like of 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.680 him teaching like people how to play Grateful Dead guitar 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.040 stuff and it's really really hard what he's doing. So 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:55.680 my hats off, right, So with man, I feel weird. 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.480 It just apologized to John Mayer on the stuff you 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.639 should know ast about solar flares. You didn't see that coming. No, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:08.440 it wasn't in my notes. So with coronal mass ejections 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.119 at least these these are not necessarily just bursts of 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:16.760 um of radiation like a solar flare is these they 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.600 do have some radiation attached, but they're big thing is 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:25.240 um particles, highly charged, super energetic particles that it shoots 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:30.160 like buckshot towards the Earth at incredible speeds. I mean, 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.440 they get they get accelerated very close to the speed 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:34.879 of light, not the speed of light, and there's a 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.359 big difference between the speed of light and close to 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.720 the speed of light. So it takes about three or 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.959 four days usually for stuff um that's shot out by 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.880 a coronal mass ejection to reach Earth. But when these 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.040 things go off on the Sun, there like you said, 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.359 they're they're rather impressive. Yeah, like if you were looking 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:57.400 at this stuff and uh with a telescope and high 0:19:57.440 --> 0:19:59.520 powered telescope that is I don't I don't think you 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.840 could well could you see any of this stuff anything 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:04.160 you have at home? You know, I've got a pretty 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.560 good telescope, but it's for nighttime viewing only. So with 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.560 the UM, I think you can see coronal mass ejections. 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.560 I think solar flares. You're you're best with a radio 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.520 telescope or X ray telescope, but the X ray telescope 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.919 would have to be outside of Earth's magnetosphere. Do you 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:24.280 have a telescope, yeah, telescope. It's not a radio telescope. 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.840 No, no no, no, I just we've never talked, we've never 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.879 scoped it up in conversation, and I would be surprised 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:31.320 if you didn't, but I'm glad to know you do. 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.800 We do have one. Yea so flares, Like if you 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.159 were looking through an X ray or a radio telescope 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:39.760 at a solar flare, it'll look cool, It'll look like 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.440 a flash of light. But those coronal mass ejections are 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.880 really impressive, big eruptions. Uh, the height can be many 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.359 times the size of the Earth, shooting out into space, 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:52.880 like you said, and they're they're kind of like a 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.280 belch from the Sun that actually releases part of the Sun. 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.600 It's like a bubble of plasma that's just an enormous 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:05.560 um often billions and billions of tons uh in mass, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.560 just coming right at the Earth, full of these incredibly 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:13.080 charged particles UM. And they're so big, so massive, and 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.800 the plasma that they're made of is so energetic that 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.320 they actually have their own magnetic fields like the sawn 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.400 or the Earth UM. So when they finally do come 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:26.800 in contact with the planet, our planet UM, weird things 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:29.800 start to happen because it's own magnetic field and all 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.120 of the charged particles within the plasma contact our own 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:37.560 magnetosphere and then also our atmosphere UM, which is almost 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:42.560 designed to UM to deter the worst effects of those 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.359 things coming at us from the Sun. Yeah, so our magnetosphere, 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.800 that's our little first layer of protection. That would be 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.359 like UM, although I was about to say like Wakonda's 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:57.240 protective shield, that may be more like the ionosphere. But 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.840 the magnetosphere is that first protect and and it's going 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.960 to kind of brush away as many of those charge particles, 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.840 these protons that are shooting out as possible, and because 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.879 of solar wind though, uh, it's it's it's got a 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:13.800 shape to it. The magnetosphere has like a sort of 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.520 a compressed side that faces the Sun. It's got a 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.240 little dip near the poles of the Earth where some 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.320 really magnificent stuff is going to take place, as we'll 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:23.480 see in a minute. And then it's got this tail 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.119 end that flows out from the back, and the Earth's 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.560 magnetic field is going to block these particles from most 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:31.879 of the surface. The Sun's the solar wind is going 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.719 to push them along toward that tail and then that 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:37.000 dip at the poles is where you're gonna see these 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:43.879 really brilliant auroras. Yes, but the magnetism, the magnetic energy 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:48.280 from the coronal mass ejection can be so energetic that 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:53.240 it can actually push on the sun side, the day 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:56.520 side of the Earth's magnetosphere it's closest to the Sun, 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.480 push on it so much that it actually contorts the 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:03.159 Night's the tail end that trails off into space and 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.040 presses it together so that when it comes together the 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:11.680 Earth's own magnetosphere um becomes energetic and quivery and then 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:14.199 when it goes back to its normal energy state, it 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:16.960 releases a bunch of energy in the form of light. 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.639 And when that happens, the auroras that tend to congregated 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:25.000 the polls can actually show up all over the planet basically, 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.440 even very close to the equator. Yeah, which is crazy. 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:30.080 And we'll talk about some of the bigger ones and 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:33.520 some of the surprising places they showed up. But um, 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:37.280 so that's a magnetosphere. I mentioned the ionosphere. That's sort 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:41.879 of um, I guess the secondary protection that is another 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:44.080 high layer of the Earth's atmosphere, and that's going to 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.200 stop all the radiation because it's giving out a tremendous 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.600