10-26-2003, 05:54 PM
Before we start spouting out random information about the end of life as we know it, let's get our basics right. A coronal mass ejection is not a solar flare, so stop calling it that. CME's are much more energetic than solar flares, and that's pretty impressive seeing as solar flares can release the same amount of energy as 40 billion atomic bombs. Here's your CME. It may look like it's surrounding the entire sun, but that's just because we're recording from Earth. This is also probably due to the fact that CMEs can quickly grow larger than the sun and are moving toward Earth. It's not like we have anything to worry about though, CME's can happen 2-3 times a day when sunspots are being unusually fiesty. At the minimum, we get about 1 CME a week. Quite the common occurence.