Come on now.
I thought Chicken Little was only a fable.
(Thank goodness Wikipedia went un-dark.)
It was just a week ago I gave you a heads-up (pun very much intended) that something called a Phobos Grunt was falling out of the sky and dropping to earth at some undisclosed location.
Well, if you’re not dead, I guess it missed you.
I don’t know about you, but the reason you haven’t heard from me for the past week was a) I was hunkered down in a bunker, deep underground that lacked a wifi hotspot, and b) with Wikipedia going dark how did you expect me to look up anything?
Just as I took a peek outside, there is news that,
“A huge sunspot unleashed a blob of charged plasma Thursday that space weather watchers predict will blast the Earth.”
"Our simulations show potential to pack a good punch to Earth’s near-space environment," said Antti Pulkkinen of the Space Weather Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.”
(Note: I am not sure I would trust anything in writing from some place or someone called Goddard’s anything.)
I do appreciate when the scientists can stay calm and explain things in a clear manner,
“At their most intense, solar discharges — known as "coronal mass ejections" — can disrupt satellites, radio communications and the power grid, and force airlines to reroute transcontinental flights.”
But according to that story in the Washington Post, apparently, their first reaction was,
“Oh my God!”
Ain’t that reassuring?!?
It makes me wonder what kind of people work at those space centers.
That was just until I read that they have someone called a “Chief Space Junk Watcher”
While they should be handing out rolls of aluminum foil so we can protect ourselves in the great outdoors, they are more interested in watching junk burn up.
‘Heightened solar activity has a more tangible benefit: It cleans up space junk.”
While I’m worrying that this “Oh, my God” solar flare will melt my skin, those Goddard folks are all excited that the space trash, which I might add, they put there, will get vaporized.
Maybe I’ll come back out in another week.
Really funny picture of scared people and good story
Thanks Anon.