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Movie "Knowing"
The end of the 2009 movie "Knowing" shows Earth destroyed by a solar flare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQEh5_pSbd4 Is this even remotely possible? [[Mod. note -- No. Contrary to how Holywood portrays them, actual solar flares involve only very small changes in the Sun's overall energy output, and are many orders of magnitude too weak to destroy buildings, boil oceans, etc. Solar flares do involve large increases in the Sun's ultraviolet and X-ray emission... but these are only a minute fraction of the Sun's total energy output, and are deflected/absorbed by the Earth's ionosphere & atmosphere. In practice, the main effects of solar flares are * disruptions to some types of radio communications (which depend on reflecting signals from the Earth's ionosphere) * sometimes disruptions to long-distance power lines * dangerous radiation doses to some spacecraft (& crew, if any) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare for more information. -- jt]] |
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Movie "Knowing"
On Aug 12, 6:16Â*pm, "Glen Watson" wrote:
The end of the 2009 movie "Knowing" shows Earth destroyed by a solar flare. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQEh5_pSbd4 Is this even remotely possible? [[Mod. note -- No. Â*Contrary to how Holywood portrays them, actual solar flares involve only very small changes in the Sun's overall energy output, and are many orders of magnitude too weak to destroy buildings, boil oceans, etc. Â*Solar flares do involve large increases in the Sun's ultraviolet and X-ray emission... but these are only a minute fraction of the Sun's total energy output, and are deflected/absorbed by the Earth's ionosphere & atmosphere. In practice, the main effects of solar flares are * disruptions to some types of radio communications Â* (which depend on reflecting signals from the Earth's ionosphere) * sometimes disruptions to long-distance power lines * dangerous radiation doses to some spacecraft (& crew, if any) See Â*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare for more information. -- jt]] It is probably unlikely but it can't be ruled out entirely because some sun-like stars have been found to emit such "superflares": Distant SuperFlares Found On Stars Disturbingly Similar To Our Own Sun. By Kathy Sawyer Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 7, 1999 "In a worst-case scenario, the most powerful category of "superflare" would create "a complete global ozone hole that would last a couple of years," exposing Earth to the sun's ultraviolet radiation and "you'd basically kill the food chain from the bottom up," Schaefer said at the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. "Schaefer's team found this pattern of superflares on sunlike stars by analyzing historical records accumulated by others. The superflares, all at least 100 light-years away, Schaefer said, have been detected using a wide range of astronomical techniques. "The superflares range from roughly 100 to 10 million times the energies of the largest flare ever detected on the surface of the sun, Schaefer said. Unlike the relatively familiar solar eruptions on Earth's star, the newly identified superflares affect not just a given point on the surface but the entire star and then some." http://www.tmgnow.com/repository/solar/superflares.html Sci/Tech Sterilisation of planets. By BBC News Online's Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse Thursday, September 23, 1999 Published at 10:04 GMT 11:04 UK "If a superflare occurred on our Sun, then the Earth would be subject to rapid heating, aurorae would ripple in every sky, the ionosphere would break up and the ozone layer would be destroyed. "This would allow lethal radiation and charged particles from the Sun to reach the ground, destroying all life-forms except those protected in the deep oceans. "However, all geological data, suggests our Sun has never experienced a superflare. Although researchers cannot rule out the possibility entirely. "So what is going on? How can stars like our Sun exhibit such superflares but our own Sun seem well-behaved?" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/454265.stm Are superflares on solar analogues caused by extra-solar planets? http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9909187 Superflares on Ordinary Solar-Type Stars http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9909188 Bob Clark |
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