*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Huge-Solar-Flare-up-close

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by jonny. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'space, mercury, alien ship, clocking device, solar flare' to 'space, mercury, alien ship, cloaking device, solar flare' - edited by oritteropo

Solar Flares are fake! A pseudo scientist funded by the moon told me so!

>> ^MarineGunrock:

Right, because we all know that cameras can capture things at that speed. Try again, Bill Nye. >> ^MonkeySpank:
The coolest thing about solar flares is that matter is actually ejected at near the speed of light.

The matter in a solar flare is ejected at about a million miles per hour which is why it takes days for them to reach earth rather than the 8 minutes it takes light to cover the same distance. >> ^MarineGunrock:

Right, because we all know that cameras can capture things at that speed. Try again, Bill Nye. >> ^MonkeySpank:
The coolest thing about solar flares is that matter is actually ejected at near the speed of light.

Right, because we all know that cameras can capture things at that speed. Try again, Bill Nye. >> ^MonkeySpank:

The coolest thing about solar flares is that matter is actually ejected at near the speed of light.

The coolest thing about solar flares is that matter is actually ejected at near the speed of light.

Your video, How big are solar flares ?, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Beautiful! Can someone add a tag for Norway? The video was shot around Kirkenes Norway, up near the North Cape.

'9 March came the warning of one of the strongest storms in years. Sørgjerd bought a ticket to northern Norway and spent seven nights frozen out at Kirkenes and the Russian border..' [via Google translate]

This article is about the March 9 solar flare that triggered the auroras.
http://www.space.com/11088-northern-lights-major-solar-flare.html

Funny to think that solar flare at the start is like many many times the size of the Earth.

Very cool.

First, I was surprised how large our moon was in comparison to Earth (relatively speaking -- if I were to draw relative sizes of how I guessed they compared, I'd have pegged the moon with half the diameter). Then, I was surprised that the sun wasn't larger in comparison to the planets (I'd have guessed 30% bigger diameter). And then my mind was blown by the sun, an object so immense that it is basically beyond the limit of my human comprehension, being dwarfed by other stars.

I guess the scientific part of my mind has always been best suited towards understanding Biology. With animals there is variation between members of a species, but their physical characteristics generally fall into a bell curve without an extremely high standard deviation; the tallest human to ever live won't be orders of magnitude larger than the shortest. I guess I had been tempted to think of celestial bodies as falling into groups like "species" in animals: asteroids, planetoids, solid planets, gas giants, stars. Clearly I'll have to rethink that, because there aren't many ants the size of a house running around.

I wonder how the physics of things like solar flares, etc. works on those super massive stars -- do their flares scale up in size in a direct linear scale with diameter or mass, or are any increases bound by a more logarithmic scale?

Anyway, thanks for the good sift!

Staying dead for now, here's a link to a non-embed in the meantime.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuffworks/4670-could-a-solar-flare-destroy-the-earth-video.htm

14) August 2008 was the first time since 1913 there were no sun spots.

Sunspots have nothing whatsoever to do with global warming, and we have no possible way of controlling them. Sunspots are a result of massive magnetic field lines that makes it harder for gas to move, and thus it creates areas of slightly cooler spots on the suns surface. Eventually this builds up a charge which can result in massive energy outbursts we call Solar flares. Because the sun is a sphere, normally these flares are pointed away from us, however if we are unlucky, and it does point towards earth, these outbursts could knock out our electricity, satellites and thus do all kinds of damage. But again, nothing to do with global warming.

As for the rest of your points. It is correct that there is variations in the earths temperature, noone objects to this. The concern about manmade global warming however, is not just based on a year-by-year measuring of temperature, it is based on findings that goes MILLIONS of years back, even hundreds of millions. By studying layers in the ground, we can conclusively say that the levels of CO2 are now way, way higher than ever before in history, if this was a RESULT of global warming, then the warming should already have been here. That doesnt have to mean it CAUSES global warming, but it is cause for CONCERN that it might.

This summer, for instance, The North Pole was in open water, for the first time in recorded history. Data about global temperatures are complicated and messy, if you pick and choose bits and pieces you fail to grasp the bigger picture. The OVERALL trend leaves little doubt: The planet is warming, and we are to blame.

You can see solar flares, spots, and surface convection in a backyard telescope. Though you NEED proper equipment and knowledge how to do it properly!!!

NEVER POINT A TELESCOPE AT THE SUN. Unless you know exactly what you are doing. Ever burn a leaf with a magnifying glass as a kid. Imagine that 100x plus in strength on your eyeball. You will be instantly and permanently blinded.

A scope with a solar filter (Baader Solarfilm or properly filtered glass elements) for very low cost, shows sunspots. Not real solar surface detail, no corona. No flares.

Unfortunately the best visuals is with some rather pricey Hydrogen Alpha filtering equipment. But a few grand invested gives beautiful flare/surface detail. Coronado was one company that manufactured those things, but I haven't looked them up in a long while. Not sure if they are still around.

As you might imagine, you don't need a large aperture telescope. A small refractor sized scope is plenty big. Your goal isn't to collect more light, which is what larger scopes do. You want to get enough light, but you will be blocking out most of it with the specialized filters so you don't fry your eyeballs.

If you are interested and don't know where to start. Contact your local Astronomy club. Every nation has clubs somewhere. Not sure? Contact your local university's astronomy dept. They will know for sure. Heck, someone at the club or university likely owns one of these things so you can see one in person. Even better, search the internet.