Two things happen in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Electromagnetic (EM) radiation travels at the speed of light and interacts with our ionosphere. This causes radio blackouts. I'm a ham radio operator, and a lot of us have apps for solar flare alerts because it pretty much shuts things down, and you can time it pretty good if the alert service is on top of it. Alert -> 8-9 minutes later -> tons of noise (static) that you can't punch a signal through. Secondly, actual particles of matter are ejected from the sun, these travel significantly slower - when they end up hitting the atmosphere, they collide with other atoms and create the aurora.
If light takes 8-9 minutes to get here, then how does the alert arrive 8-9 minutes before that? Is there a probe on the Sun with FTL comms? Or am I just doing it wrong?
Why does the solar flares take days to reach earth, while sunlight takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds.
Two things happen in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Electromagnetic (EM) radiation travels at the speed of light and interacts with our ionosphere. This causes radio blackouts. I'm a ham radio operator, and a lot of us have apps for solar flare alerts because it pretty much shuts things down, and you can time it pretty good if the alert service is on top of it. Alert -> 8-9 minutes later -> tons of noise (static) that you can't punch a signal through. Secondly, actual particles of matter are ejected from the sun, these travel significantly slower - when they end up hitting the atmosphere, they collide with other atoms and create the aurora.
If light takes 8-9 minutes to get here, then how does the alert arrive 8-9 minutes before that? Is there a probe on the Sun with FTL comms? Or am I just doing it wrong?
Answer: Yes
Thanks. :)