Coronal Mass Ejections

[jamiestem]

Why has there been so much activity with the sun as of lately, I live in

Pennsylvania and I saw the Northern Lights earlier this year in February following one of these Coronal Mass Ejections

 

On April 9th a fireball the size of Jupiter shot out of the sun, I have heard these are some of the most extreme mass ejections in recorded sun history?

[swansont]

I'll repeat my previous answer to this: That history would be what fraction of the age of the sun — less than a part in 10^7, right? Five millipercent or so?

 

Near solar maxima the Sun produces about 3 CMEs every day, whereas near solar minima there is about 1 CME every 5 days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

 

!

Moderator Note

Question on corona temperature moved http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/56445-corona-temperature/

[jamiestem]

So it hasn't been more active as of late? Or has it? I have a full understanding of our limited research on the sun given the span of a stars lifetime as compared to a humans lifetime.