BY THE NUMBERS

By The Numbers, a look at what’s in the news . . . by the numbers. These are just numbers, not suggestions that they mean more or less than what they are. We do not suggest that one number is connected to another. These are simply facts with no extraneous details, bias or slanted reporting. To borrow (and perhaps mangle a bit) a quote from legendary fictional detective Joe Friday, it’s just the numbers, ma’am!

This is the one year anniversary of the May 2024 Solar Storms, or Gannon Storm (named in memory of physicist Jennifer Gannon). This was one of the most powerful storms recorded, and certainly the biggest in two decades (at least since the 2003 Halloween solar storm). Solar flares, storms and geomagnetic storms usually go by unnoticed by most of us. However, they have the ability to cause quite a disruption on our home. So let’s take a look at them this week . . . by the numbers!

92,955,807

The number of miles from the earth to the sun. It’s so far that it takes light more than eight minutes to travel the distance.

10,000,000,000

A solar flare is basically an eruption on the sun. They can range in size from very small to erupting with the force of 10 billion 1 megaton nuclear bombs. To put that in perspective, the bomb that fell on Hiroshima in 1945 had 15 kilotons, or approximately .015 megatons.

93,000

A solar flare can travel 93,000 miles above the sun’s surface. They can also last for months at a time.

400+

A solar storm can greatly impact earth’s magnetosphere, a region of space surrounding our planet. Our magnetosphere helps block solar and cosmic radiation. Man has been studying this for more than 400 years.

109-330,000

To understand how big the sun is, you would have to put 109 earths side by side by side to reach from one side of the sun to the other. In terms of mass though, the sun is 330,000 times bigger than the earth. (Fun fact – about 75 percent of the sun’s mass is made up of hydrogen.

11

The sun or solar cycle lasts about 11 years. Scientists study changes in the star’s activity and sunspots.

28 B.C.

That’s when the first account of a sunspot was noted. It was observed by Chinese astronomers. (And if you want to know what a sunspot is, you just read it – a spot on the surface of the sun darker than the area around it.)

7,300

Doomsdayers worry that a solar storm could take out the 7,300 power plants in the U.S. Although this is possible, it is highly unlikely.