Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
It's illustrative of the forces involved. Maybe a scale Earth in the picture would give an indication of it's size.
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When oilpan-4 mentioned the flare, I turned the equation backwards:
From the Sun, it would be hard to see Earth.
For all the 'space' a CME could 'go' to, actually striking Earth, from a distance of 1-Astronomical Unit would almost constitute a miracle.
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The Sun has a lot of 'latitude' and longitude', and a flare could emerge from any local on the Sun's surface.
'Facing' Earth.
'Facing away' from Earth.
'Facing a billion random directions'.
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The Sun is 'spinning.'
Things leaving the Sun experience the Coriolis Effect.
Things that have 'charge' would be affected by the Sun's magnetic field, the Interplanetary Magnetic Field, and the Galactic Magnetic Field, which all change with time.
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I believe that Oilpan-4 has got his work cut out for himself, explaining how an Earth intercept with a flare could be calculated.