Gash/Stripe on Sun

[Monica]

What do we make of this?

Now astronomers have discovered huge dark strip on the surface of the Sun. It is estimated this filament is about 800,000 km in length!

Astrophysicists presume dark spots on the Sun are areas where the temperature is lower. However what we see here is not a normal sunspot and it is growing at an alarming rate.

According to researchers the region has increased to almost one million kilometers in just three days.

Look at the picture. I have no idea if this is authentic or not. I'm not familiar with this website and some of the other stuff on it seems questionable. I'm wondering if this is verifiable.

http://www.messagetoeagle.com/crackinthe...CXUO3TrOh1

[Sagittarius]

Made me think of the string in the Minotaur story.

Theseus volunteered to slay the monster. He took the place of one of the youths and set off with a black sail, promising to his father, Aegeus, that if successful he would return with a white sail.[10] Like the others, Theseus was stripped of his weapons when they sailed. On his arrival in Crete, Ariadne, King Minos' daughter, fell in love with Theseus and, on the advice of Daedalus, gave him a ball of thread. This was so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth

Un-strangely enough the Minotaur labyrinth allegory has been popping up in the last few days.

[Parsons]

Noticed this when this started, but I guess I didn't really contemplate it well enough because I had forgotten about it until you brought it up again here.

It is insanely, absurdly large for a filament. Going on SpaceWeather every day for over a year has taught me quite a bit about the sun, and this is actually pretty much unheard of.

I can confirm that picture IS authentic.

Amateur astronomers around the world are monitoring a gigantic filament of magnetism on the sun. If one end of the filament were on Earth, the other end would reach all the way to the Moon. The dimensions of the structure make it an easy target for amateur solar telescopes. Richard Fleet sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Wiltshire, England:

This filament is filled with billions of tons of plasma, yet it has remained suspended above the surface of the sun for days. Such a massive structure, buffeted as it is by winds and currents in the sun's atmosphere, is unlikely to remain stable much longer. If the filament collapses, it could crash into the surface of the sun and spark a powerful type of explosion called a Hyder flare. Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor developments.

[Richard]

We've only been monitoring the sun for a handful of years. Like the weather cycles...no one really know what happens normally on a solar scale.

Richard

[Parsons]

Actually, I hate to disagree with you so completely, but we have been monitoring the sun for more than a handful of years. If we can notice small-ish sunspots with telescopes since 1766, IMHO we would have noticed a gigantic filament if it appeared on the sun since then.

According to Wikipedia, this IS the largest filament in history. But I would prefer a different source to corroborate this.

Perhaps someone can prove me wrong and tell me this is a common occurrence since we started monitoring the sun?

[Richard]

Actually, I hate to disagree with you so completely, but we have been monitoring the sun for more than a handful of years. If we can notice small-ish sunspots with telescopes since 1766, IMHO we would have noticed a gigantic filament if it appeared on the sun since then.

According to Wikipedia, this IS the largest filament in history. But I would prefer a different source to corroborate this.

Perhaps someone can prove me wrong and tell me this is a common occurrence since we started monitoring the sun?

Ok, point taken...but what is 300 years taken in the context of 4.5 billion years (est age of our sun) ? At that ratio, I'm pretty sure 300 years is quite a bit less than....a handful. If this is a cycled event...and its never been seen before? That still doesn't mean its never happened before. Its just that its the first time we've seen it.

Most of the images we see nowadays are result of the "STEREO" Satellite launches from back in 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEREO

There are more planned apparently. Still kind of makes you wonder at the timing though. This almost...intense interest all of a sudden.

Richard

[Conifer16]

I'm not trying to disagree with you or cause dissonant feelings on your part(sorry if i do) but, I'm pretty sure that the sun is older than the earth as the earth would have formed around it. Therefor it can't be 4.5 billion years old as that is even younger than the stated estimated age of earth. This would require the earth to have wondered into the solar system from elsewhere and taken up orbit. I'm pretty sure that the estimated age for the earth is something like 4.8 billion years. :-) just wanted to let you know :-)

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it isn't even important. i just am nit-picky to a degree when it comes to numbered dates in astronomy. it really ground my ears to hear an amazing podcast host throw out a number for an astronomical date that was millions of years off and showed ignorance on their part in terms of astronomy(though astronomy can easily be wrong about the dating :-) i still like seeing people have the "right" numbers :-)

[Richard]

I'm not trying to disagree with you or cause dissonant feelings on your part(sorry if i do) but, I'm pretty sure that the sun is older than the earth as the earth would have formed around it. Therefor it can't be 4.5 billion years old as that is even younger than the stated estimated age of earth. This would require the earth to have wondered into the solar system from elsewhere and taken up orbit. I'm pretty sure that the estimated age for the earth is something like 4.8 billion years. :-) just wanted to let you know :-)

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it isn't even important. i just am nit-picky to a degree when it comes to numbered dates in astronomy. it really ground my ears to hear an amazing podcast host throw out a number for an astronomical date that was millions of years off and showed ignorance on their part in terms of astronomy(though astronomy can easily be wrong about the dating :-) i still like seeing people have the "right" numbers :-)

http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/how-old-is-sun

".....Science Channel

Stars have cycles of birth, childhood, middle age, old age and death, much like people. The difference, of course, is in the number of years involved. The sun is roughly 4.5 billion years old now and will keep increasing in temperature, brightness and size in the ages ahead. The sun's radius has grown by 6 percent in its lifetime, and it has enough hydrogen fuel to last it another 5 billion years, which puts it just short of middle age.

Estimates are just that, Conifer. At the number of years we are talking about....a few million years here or there only matter to the sources that reference it. But I've found numerous references to the 4.5 billion year age estimate.....for what thats worth.

Richard

[Conifer16]

really? whoa! then that would make our planet as old as the sun.
??? now i'm really confused. how is that possible? i thought that planets formed after their suns, not with them?

[Richard]

According the US Geological Service, Conifer. It all formed roughly about the same time.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html

This is a pretty cool article. But its all highly speculative.

Richard

[Conifer16]

huh. well thank you for opening that possibility up for me. i had no idea. :-)

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sorry for sounding arrogant.

[Etude in B Minor]

Does anybody see a face (or multiple faces) in this image of the sun?
To my eyes there is a very obvious one just to the upper right of center, of a grinning dude with sunglasses, big ears and bad hair.

There's another, less obvious one, right at the left edge just above center, next to one of the solar flares.

Picture from spaceweather.com
(http://spaceweather.com/images2012/15aug...nm7q93s3u4)

[Oceania]

wtf is a sun filament?

[zenmaster]

wtf is a sun filament?

Where did you hear about it?

[Parsons]

"filament: A strand of cool gas suspended over the photosphere [of the sun] by magnetic fields, which appears dark as seen against the disk of the Sun."