Solar Upheavals Heard on Earth
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Solar Upheavals Heard on Earth
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama XII (8) August 1960
- Subject
- Solar system
- Solar activity -- Congresses
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- How are you? Solar Upheavals Heard on Earth Dadio astronomers have concluded that the whole solar 21 system including the earth was heavily bombarded by electrical particles when the sun spewed out unusually large flames on three occasions last year. The events took place on Feb. 10, May 17 and Aug. 31. High-pitched radio signals from Venus and the moon re ceived on the earth shortly after the outbursts are also be lieved to have been caused by electrical clouds from the solar upheavals. These views have been recorded by the Royal Astronomi. cal Society of Britain and also, independently, by Dr. John D. Kraus, of the Radio Observatory at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, in a report to the British science journal Nature. AZ R. kraus said it looked as if the stream of particles ejec2 2 ted by the sun and traveling earthward first encoun tered the planet Venus, resulting directly or indirectly in the production of strong eleven-meter radio signals from the pla net that were "heard” in Ohio and elsewhere. The particles, he added, eventually reached the earth and formed a large ionized (electrified) cloud around the moon. Dr. Kraus is not prepared to say whether the moon-signals orignated on the moon or were merely a reflection of sun Sig nals that bounced earthward from big particle clouds near the moon that acted as a mirror. But he considered the disturb ances the most important of the year. British observers have expressed surprise that cosmic rays from the sun detected on earth on the day of the biggest out burst (Feb. 10) seemed to be delayed in transit. Cosmic rays normally travel with a velocity only slightly less than that of light: 186,000 miles a second. On this rec koning the journey from sun to earth should have taken only about eight minutes. It took eleven minutes. The suggestion that the rays received on earth were re flections of those that first hit Mars has not been generally accepted. The view is that most cosmic ray activity after a solar outburst occurs after the flare or flames have sunk bark to the surface of the sun. August 1960 49
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