January 23, 2012

Giant Solar Storm Sends Particles at Earth at 4.5 Million mph

The largest solar storm in seven years is expected to peak tomorrow, threatening GPS signals and the electrical grid.

The cloud of particles streaming from the sun is headed for the Earth at 4.5 million mph and is set to hit us at around 9:00 a.m. EST tomorrow. The faster the radiation travels, the harder it will hit as it bounces around the Earth’s magnetic field.

The geomagnetic activity depicted in the image below occurred on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10:59 p.m. EST:

Photo credit NASA/SD

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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