Effects from Oct 28th CME's wont hit Earth for a couple days?

[syano]

This CNN article http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/ a big solar flare erupted today and it claims some kind of supercharged particles could hit earth in one to two days….It talks about coronal mass ejections (CME)being associated with solar flares...

I guess whatever it is that is predicted to hit Earth in couple of days is something other than light?

What could be emitted from the Sun what would take it so long to reach Earth?

Thanks,

S

[Ambitwistor]

A coronal mass ejection is just plasma from the outer surface of the Sun. The Sun is 150 million kilometers away; it's not surprising that it takes a while for it to reach us. Even if it takes 3 days for the solar wind to reach us, that means it's travelling at almost 600 kilometers per second, which is pretty fast by solar system standards. (By comparison, Earth escape velocity is only 11 kilometers per second.)

[Adrian Baker]

Should be some good 'Northern Lights' up in the skies shortly then. Maybe we'll even get to see something in SE England...... I hope so.

[Nereid]

What happens the day before a truly spectacular auroral display in England?

Heavy, thick cloud banks roll in from the Atlantic!

[Njorl]

I thought that happened every day in England.

Actually, the one time I was there it was sunny and hot the whole 9 days. Seven days were 90+ farenheit.

Njorl

[Adrian Baker]

Originally posted by Nereid
What happens the day before a truly spectacular auroral display in England?

Heavy, thick cloud banks roll in from the Atlantic!

Auroral display? Clouds.
Total eclipse? Clouds
Leonids Metoer storm? Clouds.
Lunar eclipse? Clouds and rain.

I love astronomy, but the number of times I have got up in the middle of the night to see some spectactular phenomena and seen nothing but cloud is getting beyond a joke.
You predict the next exciting astronomoical event, and I'll predict the weather on that day!

[zoobyshoe]

Here are some nice shots people got from places the aurora was visible:

Spaceweather.com: October 2003 Aurora Gallery
Address:http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/aurora/gallery_01oct03_page3.html Changed:9:50 PM on Wednesday, October 29, 2003

[Adrian Baker]

Wow - some lovely pictures there, thanks for that.
I should have been able to see something from this Latitude then (SE England) but despite looking many times I saw nothing....[:(]

[zoobyshoe]

This was at the same site. It's a phone subscrition service which will call you whenever there is anything of interest happening in the sky over your area:

Spaceweather PHONE
Address:http://spaceweatherphone.com/