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‘Monster’ solar flares that knock out power grids and satellite navigation systems may soon become predictable. Scott McIntosh, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and lead author of a study just published in Nature Communications said that his group has linked the timing of the flares with the position of the magnetized bands in the Sun’s atmosphere.

Comparable to the jet stream that encircles the Earth, these bands carry opposite magnetic polarities that tend to warp and buckle upwards. When they’re far apart from each other, sun spot activity is at its highest. As they get closer together – and to the Sun’s equator – their opposing energies create heightened instability.
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The Black Book of Carmarthen, the oldest surviving medieval manuscript written in Welsh, has proven to be even more interesting than anyone even knew. Two scholars from the University of Cambridge – doctoral student Myriah Williams and Paul Russell, a professor in the department of Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Norse languages – examined its pages under UV light and found fascinating marginalia not visible to the naked eye. Coming into view for the first time are ghostly faces along with reflective text that were added during the 13-15th centuries.
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Loud booming noises that do not spread like sonic booms were heard on both US coasts and in Arkansas last week, adding to the proliferation of these events nationwide and worldwide. Just last week, booms disturbed residents in Berkeley, California, Lawrence County, Arkansas and Bordentown City, New Jersey, Victoria, Texas, Pennsylvania, Hawaii and North Carolina, to name a few. Just since January, there have been hundreds of cases reported in the United States alone. In general, they do not roll like sonic booms, but are single, loud explosions or rumbles that are confined to a defined area.read more