I was reading an article today about solar storms and how they are responsible for the appearance of the Aurora Borealis. It says that I spelled that wrong, but gives no better suggestions so it can suck it. Anyway, the sun basically explodes and sends out this solar plasma stuff that bombards the atmosphere and then gets channeled along the earth's magnetic field to the north and south poles. This creates the awesome (actually awesome) light shows that can be seen in the extreme latitudes. That all well and good, but what I want to know is what the heck is a pummeling from solar plasma doing to us? The magic magnetic field is not going to stop everything, but there is no mention of what side effects there surely will be. Whatever, I'll take a slightly shortened lifespan (or maybe lengthened? fingers crossed) in exchange for seeing the northern lights once in a while. I have heard that the sun works on an eleven year cycle of stormy explosive activity and the peak is in 2013, so we should have some good shows in the near future. Check out the northern lights as seen from above here.
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
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