Giant Solar Tsunami Viewed from NASA's STERO Spacecraft

Just as earthquakes can set off huge tsunami waves on the surface of our oceans, a coronal mass ejection or flare can cause a tsunami on the Sun's surface—and it did on May 19, 2007. The waves generated by the explosions can travel at over a million kilometers per hour. The event was captured by NASA's twin Stereo spacecraft and was observed by a team at Trinity College, Dublin.

The event lasted for about 35 minutes and ultimately covered almost the full disk of the Sun. “The energy released in these explosions is phenomenal, about two billion times the annual world energy consumption in just a fraction of a second,” stated Long.

A previous observation of a solar tsunami was recorded by the SOHO spacecraft almost a decade ago but these images were misleading to scientists. Theorists were unable to match the anticipated behaviors of the tsunami to the observation because theory suggested that the solar tsunamis would travel much faster that observed. According to their calculations, tsunamis on the Sun should have had phenomenal speed due to the influence of the Sun's magnetic field on the solar material—making the waves magneto-acoustical in nature. With the improved capabilities of the Stereo's Extreme Ultraviolent Imager (EUVI) instruments they in fact measured speeds in agreement with the theory. In addition, by monitoring the Sun at four wavelengths which penetrate different layers of the Sun's atmosphere, astronomers could see how the wave moved vertically as well as horizontally.

“We were able to show for the first time that this wave actually propagates almost all the way from the surface of the Sun to high up in the Sun's atmosphere,” said Dr. Gallagher, a colleague of Long.

The researchers even saw the pressure wave reflect and refract off different regions of the Sun's atmosphere exactly as Earth's tsunami's do as they crash against land. This past April it was reported at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting by David Long.

Posted by Dr. Chandra Walker

Source Links:

http://www.physics.tcd.ie/Astrophysics/tsunami/
http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/stereoimages/195SolarTsunami.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7326097.stm
http://nam2008.qub.ac.uk/press/2008-15-release/

The World We Live

This is the 21st Century and the man is expected to evolve more and more along with the improvement of the Technology. But unfortunately what we see in our daily lives is completely the oppersite of this expectation. Everyday people are going after useless and selfish desires. Money had become the undisputed ruler of the world. People have become so greedy of wealth and money such that they would commit any horrible act to make their bids successful. Humanity and the value of a human life had gone even below the value of zero.

Personally i believe that this is the worst era in the history of man kind. And this could well be the ultimate decider of the entire destiny of man. We keep on saying about the advancement of Technology, setting up civilizations on places like Moon, Mars..etc. But what does it mean to those people who are suffering in poor countries, will it make any difference to their suffering..? I am afraid the answer is a big 'NO'.

I know this is a very broad issue and can't be discussed through one article in a blog, furthermore various individual could have different view points regarding the same matter. (In that case you are most welcome to express them through 'Comments').

Reasons for most of these problems are the faults of our own, so there is no point in blaming each other. One individual may have committed it, but ultimately all of us would be at the receiving end. People should need to be more sensitive with regard to things which are happening around them. I would like to take a very simple scenario to explain this fact, sometime time back (10 - 12 years) when a pregnant mother or a woman carrying a baby get into a bus people would try to help them in different ways (At least by giving her a seat ), but nowadays people would start looking at each others faces without doing anything. This may sound very simple, but it is the reality, infact the bitter reality. This is the same old story where ever you go.

We, human beings are designed (I am not sure whether it is the correct word) in a way that all of us need the help of each other. No one can survive alone no matter how strong and powerful he is. We need to understand this. I think that it self could provide solutions for number of problems we have. We are supposed to be the most intelligent species on this planet, but thus far we haven't acted in that manner. This would be the ideal time to do so, if not all would be gone forever.

I am just a single individual, no Mahatma gandhi or any other. Personally i may have strengths and weaknesses of my own. But then again, all of us are not 100% complete, are we..?

Through this I won't be able to change the minds of everyone. But if i can send a message to at least a few, then it would be a consolation for me.