The Sun is getting active. Click for larger. Credit: SDO/NASA

The Sun is getting more and more active as time goes by.  Currently we have a Coronal Mass Ejection heading at us.  The CME is part of a series of events on the sun being called a global magnetic disturbance because it involves the whole Earth facing hemisphere.  Discovery has a nice article/video(s) and the SDO site has video’s you should check out.

Is something bad going to come of this?  Probably not and it’s not like it hasn’t happened before.  Our detection and observations are vastly improved over what they were just a few years ago.  Communications satellites can be configured to lessen any damage.  The power grid could be affected, but I’m not sure that this is a big problem with this particular event.  We could be treated to some nice auroral activity though – YAY!

It is not without any consequence though; you may have heard there was a problem when s spike in electrical current tripped a circuit breaker shutting down half of the cooling system on the ISS.  Efforts to reset the breaker and get the coolant pump going again were unsuccessful.  The station stable the affected areas are either running on redundant systems or being powered via jumper cables for now (insert you might be a redneck joke here).  It’s going to take a spacewalk to two to see if they can fix the problem.  Sounds like the spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday and the problems from the CME should be over by then.  Being caught outside during a CME probably would not be a very good thing.  Read more about the cooling failure at NASA.

As we all know it won’t be too much longer and the shuttle will be no more.  How are they going to get a new 780 lb pump up there if they need it?  They won’t.

So keep an eye to the sky tonight for possible northern or southern lights and don’t forget the good vibes for Marian.  I think she needs them.