The+Solar+Winds

=Solar Winds=

A solar wind is a stream of charged particles that was ejected from the upper atmosphere of the sun. The particles continuously blow off of the sun. The solar wind has roughly the same amount of electrons and protons.The wind comes off of the sun so the sun loses more than 1 million tons of mass per second but its not a significant loss to the sun.



=The Sun's Coronal Hole=

The coronal holes are found mostly near the sun's poles. When the Solar wind comes off of the coronal holes it reaches a speed of 1 million miles per hour. The coronal holes have less plasma than the sun's average. The coronal hole is on the corona of the sun. The corona of the sun is a plasma atmosphere and it extends out millions of km into space. You can see the sun's corona during a solar eclipse. The corona is the white shine that comes out of the sun.

=How will Solar Winds have a affect in 2012=

NASA has confirmed that in 2012 we will reach our solar maximum. In a Solar Maximum there is a higher chance for the coronal mass ejections which is where the solar winds come from. The solar winds will not affect the people on earth but any astronauts out in space will be affected by it. If they are around that much radiation than it could cause cancer. You wont be affected by it right away though. It is said that the solar winds will knock out satellites and even some power grids. The solar maximum happens every 11 years through the sun's cycle of activity. In this cycle there is a lot of particles being built up which will have the solar winds get and extra charge on the magnetosphere or anything that is plasma.

=Will the solar winds really affect anyone?=

My opinion is that it will affect the world. I don't think that it will do much damage but we would lose power and things like that. If the solar winds are really as strong ar they are supposed to be a lot of places around the world could lose power as well. The increased solar winds could happen as soon as 2010 or 2011. But its more likely that it will not happen until we actually reach the middle of the milky way in 2012. The THEMIS satellite that NASA owns has found that a large amount of solar particles are rapidly growing in the outer part of the magnetosphere. Eventually all of the solar particles could be blown around with the solar winds. People on earth could possibly be in high levels of radiation that would affect humans overtime.

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