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American Morning
Solar Flare-Up
Aired October 24, 2003 - 09:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Going to turn our attention, switch gears somewhat dramatically right now. At this moment, it is streaking towards space -- through space, rather, toward the Earth. Should hit later this afternoon, talking about a powerful solar flare that could mean big trouble. Could, we say.
Neil Degrasse Tyson is with us now, our guest here, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History here in Manhattan.
Nice to see you again. Good morning to you.
So the sky is falling?
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, DIR., HAYDEN PLANETARIUM AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Yes, the sky's falling.
HEMMER: What could happen today?
TYSON: It's a blob of charged particles, and the sun every now and then burps up these blobs of plasma. The sun is a very hot place, so all the electrons have been stripped from their host atoms, and the stream of particles, it burps up in every direction at all times. Occasionally one heads towards Earth, and that's what's going on now.
HEMMER: What has happened in the past, though? What's the biggest concern?
TYSON: If you have enough of these charge particles and they come in contact with circuitry, as we now have much of in orbit around the Earth, then it can actually short circuit, depending on what -- how hardened your circuitry is. And the hardening is a function of whether you designed it to not be susceptible to this kind of pulse.
HEMMER: OK, if we go back to the late '80s, I think it was '88 or '89, where the beepers in America, about 85 percent, was knocked out?
TYSON: Yes, that was the last time the sun was reaching solar max, and when another burp, burped again, a blob of plasma pie came toward Earth, and it knocked out a whole network of cell phone communications.
HEMMER: Knowing that so much more technology is used every day by consumers, is there more concern today than there has been in the past? TYSON: You know, it's interesting, we now have a greater capacity than ever to monitor the sun, but we're also more susceptible than ever before, because of so much of our daily life and technology that's still dependent on spaceborne electronics.
HEMMER: Kind of works both ways.
What can we do to limit damage, then, if anything?
TYSON: Nothing.
HEMMER: Sit here and take it?
TYSON: Go major in engineering and design circuitry that's more protected from that. You know, we're susceptible. In all seriousness, many satellites have safe modes that they can go into to minimize what could be the effect of the damage of these charged particles.
HEMMER: So they can slow down the satellites or put them in a pause mode?
TYSON: No, no, no, not in their orbit, but just in terms of what aspects of the circuitry is exposed.
HEMMER: I was reading something here, on a scale from one to five, this was forecast to be a three.
TYSON: Yes, so it could get worse than this. So there might be a few things that go out, but it won't be the catastrophe that people have been worried about. But there's one thing you can do this weekend, is go north, because these charge particles collide with Earth's atmosphere and render it aglow with the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights.
HEMMER: Is that so? Yes, I read something where it's really dangerous to do a spacewalk during one of these, not that we're going to be doing that this weekend. But why would that be?
TYSON: Because these charged particles are just not good for your biology. And you want to stay indoors, in your spacecraft, when this happens.
HEMMER: Stay indoors, in case you're in the ISS, 240 miles above Earth. Worst-case scenario could be what? Somebody's talking about banking issues or something that might come into play?
TYSON: It depends on how susceptible your electronics are to spaceborne. It could also happen on earth. There are electrical grids that react to this pulse of electrical charges, and you could short grids. It happened in Canada 10, 15 years ago. So you want to be able to protect against that with better electronics.
HEMMER: What are you doing at 3:00 this afternoon?
TYSON: Covering. HEMMER: Great to see you, Neil Degrasse Tyson.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 24, 2003 - 09:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Going to turn our attention, switch gears somewhat dramatically right now. At this moment, it is streaking towards space -- through space, rather, toward the Earth. Should hit later this afternoon, talking about a powerful solar flare that could mean big trouble. Could, we say.
Neil Degrasse Tyson is with us now, our guest here, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History here in Manhattan.
Nice to see you again. Good morning to you.
So the sky is falling?
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, DIR., HAYDEN PLANETARIUM AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Yes, the sky's falling.
HEMMER: What could happen today?
TYSON: It's a blob of charged particles, and the sun every now and then burps up these blobs of plasma. The sun is a very hot place, so all the electrons have been stripped from their host atoms, and the stream of particles, it burps up in every direction at all times. Occasionally one heads towards Earth, and that's what's going on now.
HEMMER: What has happened in the past, though? What's the biggest concern?
TYSON: If you have enough of these charge particles and they come in contact with circuitry, as we now have much of in orbit around the Earth, then it can actually short circuit, depending on what -- how hardened your circuitry is. And the hardening is a function of whether you designed it to not be susceptible to this kind of pulse.
HEMMER: OK, if we go back to the late '80s, I think it was '88 or '89, where the beepers in America, about 85 percent, was knocked out?
TYSON: Yes, that was the last time the sun was reaching solar max, and when another burp, burped again, a blob of plasma pie came toward Earth, and it knocked out a whole network of cell phone communications.
HEMMER: Knowing that so much more technology is used every day by consumers, is there more concern today than there has been in the past? TYSON: You know, it's interesting, we now have a greater capacity than ever to monitor the sun, but we're also more susceptible than ever before, because of so much of our daily life and technology that's still dependent on spaceborne electronics.
HEMMER: Kind of works both ways.
What can we do to limit damage, then, if anything?
TYSON: Nothing.
HEMMER: Sit here and take it?
TYSON: Go major in engineering and design circuitry that's more protected from that. You know, we're susceptible. In all seriousness, many satellites have safe modes that they can go into to minimize what could be the effect of the damage of these charged particles.
HEMMER: So they can slow down the satellites or put them in a pause mode?
TYSON: No, no, no, not in their orbit, but just in terms of what aspects of the circuitry is exposed.
HEMMER: I was reading something here, on a scale from one to five, this was forecast to be a three.
TYSON: Yes, so it could get worse than this. So there might be a few things that go out, but it won't be the catastrophe that people have been worried about. But there's one thing you can do this weekend, is go north, because these charge particles collide with Earth's atmosphere and render it aglow with the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights.
HEMMER: Is that so? Yes, I read something where it's really dangerous to do a spacewalk during one of these, not that we're going to be doing that this weekend. But why would that be?
TYSON: Because these charged particles are just not good for your biology. And you want to stay indoors, in your spacecraft, when this happens.
HEMMER: Stay indoors, in case you're in the ISS, 240 miles above Earth. Worst-case scenario could be what? Somebody's talking about banking issues or something that might come into play?
TYSON: It depends on how susceptible your electronics are to spaceborne. It could also happen on earth. There are electrical grids that react to this pulse of electrical charges, and you could short grids. It happened in Canada 10, 15 years ago. So you want to be able to protect against that with better electronics.
HEMMER: What are you doing at 3:00 this afternoon?
TYSON: Covering. HEMMER: Great to see you, Neil Degrasse Tyson.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
