On the Sun X 8.7 +!

On the Sun X 8.7 +!

Published 15.05.2024 | By Йосиф

On the Sun X 8.7 +!

On the evening of May 13, 2024 UTC, the cosmonauts solemnly announced that the dangerous sunspot AR3664 had disappeared behind the edge of the Sun and now nothing threatened the planet Earth. However, already at 2 a.m. on May 14, AR3664 showed renowned astronomers that everything is somewhat not as it seems:

And today at around 17:00 UTC AR3664 banged again:

X8.7 is the largest solar flare of the current 25th solar cycle and the largest since 2017. However, there are nuances. Astronauts (spaceweather.com) write the following about this:

Because the sunspot lies beyond the edge of the solar disk, the flare was partially eclipsed. It was probably even stronger than it seemed. “X8.7” almost certainly underestimates the true power of the flash.

Thus, today we have as many as three X-class flares, since the previous M8.8 also occurred behind the western limb and was clearly underestimated, and now as many as three CMEs are flying towards Earth. The latter represents the consequences of X10, and maybe something more.

Optimists think that the spot is not pointing directly towards the Earth, so nothing will happen. Nevertheless, pessimists remind us of the Parker spiral , that is, the heliospheric current sheet:

The CME will come down the Parker Spiral as if by wire and hit the night side, causing extensive auroras and all that. In this situation, our readers will probably find the map of power outages in the USA useful:

As soon as the big American transformers fall down and no one can lift them, it will mean that it’s time to crawl into the bunkers.

We don’t think that X8.7++ will be enough for this. However, as Comrade Galileo Galilei said when he healed his legs broken by the Holy Inquisition, it still turns! That is, in a couple of weeks AR3664 will appear above the horizon again. At the same time, there are many other glorious sunspots, so let’s keep an eye on developments.

https://thebigtheone.com/%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d1%81%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%bd%d1%86%d0%b5-x-8-7/