Video Guide: Secrets of the Sun (NOVA)
Solar Storms
1.
What are the 2 parts of a solar storm? x-rays and CME (plasma flow)
2.
What evidence is there for a solar storm in 1859?
Auroras and telegraph went down
3.
What effect could a large CME wave have on today’s electric power grid? melt transformers, overload power lines, power outage out for up to 10 years
4.
Why are CME’s more of an issue today than in the past? Give 3 specific examples of technologies we use today that could be affected by solar energy?
GPS, communication, airplane tracking, astronauts in outer space
Sun’s Interior (Approx 9 minutes)
5.
What is the importance of the rippling vibrations on the surface of the sun?
Sound waves are produced inside the sun that allow us to map the layers of the sun
6.
What is plasma?
Gaseous soup of charged particles
Photon’s Journey (Approx 17 minutes)
7.
How do hydrogen atoms in the center of the sun produce sunlight?
Huge pressure causes nuclear fusion protons fuse together and produce photons of light
8.
Why doesn’t the Sun blow apart from nuclear fusion?
Balanced between gravity and expansion
9.
Why does it take so long to get through the radiative zone?
Absorbed and transmitted randomly not in straight line out
10.
Describe the movement of plasma in the convection zone.
Heated at bottom by core and expands and becomes less dense rises to surface then cools and sinks back down.
Destructive Power of the Sun Chapter 4 of 6 25 minutes
11.
Surveillance of sun improves with the launch of Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), what was one important aspect of SDO’s new information?
See the Sun’s energy in different wavelengths (temperatures)
12.
What things work to produce the Sun’s magnetic fields?
Churning plasma currents in convection zone and the rotation of the Sun’s layers
13.
How are solar flares produced by field lines?
Field lines get wound up and cross, which short circuits them so they explode as a flare
14.
What is behind the energy of a CME?
The high temperature of the corona may power the movement of CME’s towards Earth
15.
Why is the corona so much hotter than the surface of the sun?
Jets of plasma funnel heat upward
16.
Why are sunspots a clue to predicting solar storms?
Magnetic fields produce the flares that produce CMEs
17.
What determines whether or not most of a CME’s energy will strike the Earth?

If positive pole of CME wave is lined up to positive pole of Earth’s magnetic field then like polarities repel the energy.
18.
What will be produced by a moderate solar storm such as the February 2011 being tracked?
Auroras and radio interference
19.
Why might it take so long to restore power if many transformers are burned out?
Hard to replace – only a few places make them and it takes months to make new ones
20.
What is one question you still have about the Sun?