What if?

[FordPrefect]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/space/1623715

This article has nothing to do with evolution/creation, but what do you think about this line from the article.

Last year, the biggest eruption scientists had ever seen -- a tongue of flame stretching hundreds of millions of miles -- could have wreaked all kinds of havoc on Earth, had it been directed toward a sensitive area.

What do they mean by "sensitive area"? could we be burnt to a crisp if this happened? could this cause an mass extinction event?

 

[ocean]

That site is not credible. It is impossible for a "tongue of flame" to stretch hundreds of millions of miles and kill us all.

 

[ZiSunka]

I don't know exactly what they mean by sensitive area, but I do know that solar flares like that can knock out communications, etc. I remember about ten years ago, all wireless communications on the east coast got knocked out by a solar flare. No cell phones or pagers would work for about six hours. Back then, not that many people had wireless, so it caused a big problem, but not a life-changing problem like it would today. Now just about everything is wireless at some point along the way, and even medical equipment has components that could be affected by a bad flare.

I don't think it could cause a mass-extinction, except perhaps of radiation-sensitive species, none of which I can name. It's like a big storm of radio waves and radio particulates more than anything.

 

[Morat]

  All is not equal when it comes to the Earth's magnetic fields.

 

 

[FordPrefect]

I did not expect that a radio-wave storm would affect our chances of survival, but I took the article at its word in regards to the flame that was 100 million miles+ which could be somewhat troublesome if it were possible.

Thanks for the quick replies

 

[ZiSunka]

"Flame" in this case doesn't really mean "fire." Forgive me if you already knew that.

 

[FordPrefect]

Originally posted by lambslove
"Flame" in this case doesn't really mean "fire." Forgive me if you already knew that.

That was my entire problem with the article. When I see the words "tongue of flame" I am understanding that to mean the solar equivalent to "fire" i.e. a flare of superhot gas that is 100 millions of miles long...