Recent content by SiliconGraybeard

I'm sorry - I don't understand something. Since the new moon always rises and sets almost exactly in unison with the sun, how can the 'black moon' of December rise tonight? It's setting almost exactly when the sun sets, just before it. Moon rise was three minutes before sunrise according to...

Compared to that, though, it's pretty disappointing to call an X1.1 "colossal."

While it's interesting when the sun produces an X-class flare pointed at us, it would be orders of magnitude more helpful to tell us the size of the flare. As you point out, X class, like all the classes, has many levels and the higher the number, the more potential there is for damage. If...

The article has a part that seems incorrect. It says, "The cause of this issue was cosmic rays  —  charged particles that the sun emits during periods of high solar activity." I've never heard that description of cosmic rays before. Those come from deep space. Charged particles from the...