back to article Solar plasma aurora storm to hit Earth tomorrow today!

Astroboffins are warning that a mighty "eruption" of superhot plasma has been blasted out of the Sun directly at the Earth. The plasma cloud is expected to reach Earth beginning tomorrow today, possibly causing strange phenomena - including a mighty geomagnetic storm which could see the Northern Lights aurorae extend as far …

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  1. DJ 2
    Coat

    Earth's magnetic field.

    What does this switch do..

    "Earth's Magnetic Field Offline"

    - Tinfoil hat and shades in the pocket.

    1. The Nameless Mist
      Paris Hilton

      press the button

      Putting a switch on a pedestal and marking it "DO NOT PRESS - WILL CAUSE END OF ALL LIFE ON PLANET"

      Guarantee you will get someone going "oh .. what does this do?"

      {Paris -- because she'd probably push it for the publicity}

      1. Doshu
        Paris Hilton

        Sweet sun showers

        Fire washes the skin off the bone and the sin off the soul. It cleans away the dirt.

        And my momma didn't raise herself no dirty boy.

        Um.. maybe I've been playing too much.

        (Paris because she's dirty)

    2. Stuart Castle Silver badge

      Don't panic

      It caused the phrase "please do not push this button again" to light up black in black letters on a black background.

      Mines the one with the large pocket with the guidebook with the words "Don't Panic" in large, friendly letters on the front.

  2. max allan

    When tomorrow?

    Is there a time estimate? I'm assuming it would be either early morning or late evening, but I don't fancy waking up at 4AM if it's not going to happen till 10PM...

    1. lonelycheese15

      Re: (untitled)

      They say they won't know what time it's going to happen until an hour beforehand. They have to wait for the blast to pass the satellite that's sitting between the Earth and the Sun.

    2. lonelycheese15

      Re: (untitled)

      They say they won't know until an hour beforehand.

      1. Wize

        Wheres the best place to look...

        ...to get our 1 hour warning of the end of the world?

  3. lecson

    Boffins?

    For a techy publication you really should try to rise above Daily Mail standards once in a while, you know.

    1. Richard 81

      Speaking as a boffin

      ...albeit a chemistry related one, I have no problem with the term.

      It's pretty old fashioned.

    2. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Boffins?

      We always say 'boffins'. When has the Mail ever said 'boffins'? What's it to yer?

      It always amuses me when commentards shake their heads sadly and say they expected so much more of us. Why? Surely you should know us by now. Don't try to change us, baby.

      1. Disco-Legend-Zeke
        Pint

        Boffins? Hell...

        ...I learned the word here.

        And another for Ms. Bee, please.

      2. genome
        Go

        RE: Re: Boffins?

        oh sarah...

        *shakes head sadly*

        i expected so much mo...

        bah who am i kidding :p

      3. Naughtyhorse
        Headmaster

        dunno about the mail...

        but the sun once charaterised the late lamented Dr Kelly - killed by MI5 as " Tragic Boffin, Dr Kelly"

    3. hplasm
      WTF?

      You must be new here?

      perhaps.

  4. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Cool.

    Note to self: 'Solar flares' is a valid excuse for any software bugs discovered tomorrow.

    1. SonnyJimm
      Flame

      title required

      Hey Microsoft....one of your updates has left my PC with a BSOD...

      Hey, random pc user, that isn't our fault, didn't you know that the sun has just blown up...it's the sun's fault!

      1. Munchausen's proxy
        Pint

        It's been a while

        I'm pretty sure that 'solar flares' was one of the first entries mentioned in the very early documentaries of the BOFH's Rolodex of excuses.

        1. DrunkenMessiah
          Flame

          Sure was, I read it again last week!

          See here: http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/0000/bastard06.php

    2. Daniel B.
      Boffin

      BOFH

      This means I can actually use that Excuse Calendar entry tomorrow!

      Good thing, I was running out of credible excuses...

  5. LuMan
    Coat

    Ouch!

    "a huge solar pimple so large as to be visible without the aid of a telescope."

    Well, I tried to look, but couldn't see anything that looked like a pimple. So I used my binoculars. Now I can't see anything at all. Bloody great bit of advice, that.

    Mine's the one with the Braille keyboard in the pocket....

    1. envmod

      he he he

      lol

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      should have used a telescope...

      "do not look into sun with remaining eye"

    4. rcdicky
      Happy

      LOL

      I don't normally put out such useless replies - but LOL :P

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    cool

    tin foil hats on though methinks

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Whatever you do dont watch it!

    .. Or you will go blind and then a bunch of plants will eat you!

    1. neb
      Alien

      plants, meh!

      this'll end up being start of world war Z once that there solanum causes the dead to rise

      i'm off home to sharpen my machete and make sure my 'bug out bag' is fully packed,

      then chuck some diesel in the car and drive off to castel caerfilthy

      oh and cwtch the kids before we're all eaten alive

      fucking zombies!

      1. 0dd84ll
        Alert

        might not be zombies, could be triffids

        I for one will not be looking at the sky

        Bill Mason

    2. Lee Dowling Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Quick

      Quick! Everybody to the Isle of Wight. Actually... I'm not sure what's worse - being rendered blind and then eaten by sentient plants, or having to live on the Isle of Wight for the rest of your life....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        they already are...

        its Cowes week.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Phew

    Normally a blast of radiation like this could be expected to wipe out much of the human race, but fortunately we are protected by the Earth's magnetic field.

    Ah lucky then we completed that magnetic field last week... who says the current gov doesnt know what they are doing.

    1. StephenD

      Normally

      Quite -- an interesting use of the word "normally" which I wasn't previously aware of.

      1. rcdicky
        Happy

        Glad I'm not the only one who thought that statement a bit odd...

        Not glad I'm the last one to comment on it though :P

      2. Gav
        Headmaster

        Normality be damned!

        You are too generous, sir. I was rather fed up with the human race getting wiped out every time this happened, and it's well past time the government did something about it.

        Why, I have letters written by my grandfather to The Times over 70 years ago on this very matter, and it's taken until now to remedy the matter? It doesn't bear thinking about the number of times life on Earth has been eradicated, whilst the fat cats in government have been sitting on their fat behinds doing nothing. For shame!

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. You aint seen me right?
    Flame

    Attack of the...

    Time to lock a sighted person in the nearest basement and keep some handcuffs close to hand just in case...

  11. Wize

    Must be a very good aim...

    ...to hit us from that distance away.

    Just hope their calculations are correct it will be deflected by the magnetic poles. Aren't they due to go funny and invert soon?

    Factor 50000 sunblock anyone?

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Boffin

      Please tell me you haven't been watching 'The Core'

      Where to start with what's wrong in that film, from a technical and/or scientific point of view.

      The geomagnetic field has been known to periodically invert itself; the record of this in the orientation of magnetic fields in igneous rocks provided evidence for plate tectonics. It is thought to be a fairly slow process (taking perhaps thousands of years), the lack of mass extinctions corresponding to magetic field inversions would seem to suggest that it isn't ever actually zero at all over this time. More likely, it changes direction, or becomes chaotic beofre stabilising again with the opposite orientation.

      Note also, that the sun itself flips its magnetic field much more often, giving rise to the approximately 13 year solar cycle; this leads to the 'termination shock' where the sun's magnetic field meets the interstellar magnetic field at a distance varying somewhat between around 75 to 90 AU. This is known as the heliopause, is analogous the the Earth's magnetopause and protects the solar system to a certain extent from cosmic radiation in the same way as the manetopause protects us from solar radiation. Therefore, in the event of an inversion of the Earth's magnetic field, we would expect the magnetic bubble around the Earth to shrink somewhat but to carry on protecting us.

      1. Peter Kay

        The Core is a fun film

        The keys to watching The Core are 1) alcohol 2) not taking

        it seriously and 3) predicting what will obviously happen.

        Yes, it's completely unscientific and predictable, but thats

        the point. It's very clear from watching it that the writers

        know that it's completely un-scientific and decided to ham

        it up to annoy pedants anyway.

    2. Chris Miller

      Inversion currently under way

      At least, that's the opinion of quite a few geomagneticians (if there isn't such a word, there is now!) Certainly the magnetic poles are wandering rather drunkenly around the polar regions, which may or may not be typical behaviour.

      But, as LC points out, nothing to lie awake at night worrying about. BTW the solar cycle is just under 11 years - 21 years if you allow for the need to go from N/S to S/N orientation and then back again. But, as the latest cycle demonstrates, it's not quite as regular as it might be.

      1. Goat Jam
        Badgers

        Hmmmm

        "Certainly the magnetic poles are wandering rather drunkenly around the polar regions, which may or may not be typical behaviour."

        Are we sure that this isn't something to do with human activity? Too many Hummers in the Northern Hemisphere perhaps?

        Come to think of it, maybe there is a research grant or two on offer. People have a right to know!

        1. AndrueC Silver badge
          Joke

          I want a research grant..

          ..to study 'polar squirming'.

          I haven't worked out what the cause is yet - it may depend on who offers me the best grant.

  12. envmod

    i saw the borthern lights once in the UK

    it was about twenty years ago and was spectacular. i'll be looking out for this tomorrow!

    1. lawndart

      Oooh pretty

      Were you, by any chance, just north of Aberystwyth at the time?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Oooh pretty

        He might not have been just north of Aberystwyth at the time, but I certainly was - was during either the second or third year of my first degree (studying planetary physics, no less)

        It's *very* rare to see aurora that far south, and fairly rare in the UK as a whole, although I've often seen 'airglow' (aurora's little brother) in the far North of Scotland.

        I took some long-exposure photographs which, if I recall, came out quite well. Wonder if I've still got them ...

    2. BlueGreen

      ditto

      but (@lawndart) in the midlands. Wouildn't call it spectacular as such. More odd. Started as a glowing cloud low on the horizon which slowly spread to be a soft glowing cloud-ribbon all round and just above the horizon. Later streaks from this developed up towards the centre of the sky above where a sharp-edged 'break' shape developed.

      No fast movement, took hours, all very slow, no particular colours, just glows, clouds, streaks. It was confirmed next day on the news as an aurora.

    3. QuiteEvilGraham
      Heart

      #i saw the Northern lights once in the UK

      Me too,

      Driving north up the new M24 about 30 miles past the border, circa 1990ish. About the middle of June at about 3ish in the morning. Huge, amazing, colossal green curtains in the sky, shimmering and flickering. Utterly awesome. I dug my ex-wife, who was asleep in the passenger seat, in the ribs, and mentioned the fact.

      "Oooh, what's that?". Bloody network specialists!!

    4. SteveK

      Me too!

      I also saw them around 20 years ago, somewhere between '88 and '90 at a guess. Down south, in Hampshire. Probably around 9-10pm and it was dark so not in the summer. Big curtains and rays of purest green. Very impressive. Have been planning to make a trip somewhere likely to see them again, but am now hoping if I procrastinate long enough they'll come to me instead!

      Steve.

      1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

        Bonus points

        Bonus points for spotting the Blackadder reference in SteveK's post.

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