Massive Flare on the Sun – More than Thousands of H-Bombs. Coronal Mass Ejection Brushes By Earth
Despite being in the Solar Minimum cycle, sunspot 930 exploded on Dec. 6th, producing an X6-category flare. This massive explosion created a huge shock wave recorded by H-alpha telescope at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico operated by the National Solar Observatory (NSO). Keep in mind the Earth would be a tiny dot in this image for size comparison. (See larger animation)
A Coronal Mass Ejection brushed by the Earth- making for some nice Auroral activity in the Northern Hemisphere, and even further south.
Now, it is clear that the sun’s activity has been increasing since the last century (accounting for normal ups and downs) and these changes are likely affecting our climate. What’s in store for the future? It could be a very interesting time we are entering, folks, in regards to solar events.
(Thanks to SpaceWeather.com)