What is the process of a solar flare and why does it take so long to feel the effects?
In: Earth Science
A solar flair is not a flash of light but a spray of various particles from the surface of the Sun. As these particles have mass to them they travel significantly slower then the light. This means that though you can see the solar flair happening (technicalyl with 8 minutes delay) it still takes a long time for the particles to travel the same distance.
Did you ever play a game where you try to figure out how far away lightning struck? It goes like this. When you see lightning, start counting seconds. When you hear thunder, stop. The number of seconds is roughly how many kilometers is between you and the lightning.
Solar flare works the same way. Most of the things inside the flare take a lot longer to get to us (just like sound is slower than light).
A solar flare is *not* light. It is a stream of plasma ejected *at a fraction* of the speed of light.
Therefore, although the sun is only 8 light minutes away, it takes days because the plasma is travelling at sublight speeds, *not* at light speed.
Matter moves slower than light. Conveniently, you can see this now. There was a solar flare yesterday. The x-rays hit the Earth in 8 minutes, the ejected material will get here on Wednesday or Thursday. If you go to [https://www.spaceweather.com/](https://www.spaceweather.com/) there’s an image from the SOHO satellite showing the plasma blob on it’s way here. It’s the second movie with the faint blob surrounding the sun that grows more towards the right. (It’s off center Dec 7th because Earth’s orbit will put us right inside it in 2-3 days.
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