Weird Science: Geomagnetic Storms
On March 13, 1989, a geomagnetic storm hit Montreal, Quebec. It caused an electrical blackout that left about 6 million people without electricity for 9 hours.
A geomagnetic storm occurs when gusts of solar wind smash into Earth's magnetic field. Powerful eruptions from the sun, called coronal mass ejections (CME), happen periodically, sending charged particles outward at high speeds. Solar winds usually travel between 300 km/sec and 600 km/sec. But the gusts of solar wind from a CME can travel as fast as 2,000 km/sec.
Earth is approximately 150,000 km from the sun. Calculate how long it takes a solar wind that travels at 500 km/sec to reach Earth from the sun.
A geomagnetic storm occurs when gusts of solar wind smash into Earth's magnetic field. Powerful eruptions from the sun, called coronal mass ejections (CME), happen periodically, sending charged particles outward at high speeds. Solar winds usually travel between 300 km/sec and 600 km/sec. But the gusts of solar wind from a CME can travel as fast as 2,000 km/sec.
Earth is approximately 150,000 km from the sun. Calculate how long it takes a solar wind that travels at 500 km/sec to reach Earth from the sun.