The sun and sunspots.

I had a question. We are hearing talk about the sun, sunspots and coronal mass ejection blah blah blah.

My question is, because the earth is so far away, does it take years for us to actually "see" changes in the sun as far as sunspots and such. I'm kind of confused about the sight and whether it has anything to do with light years, and such.

Should it take light years for us to see changes in the sun?

The sun is apxmitly 93million miles from earth the light you see right now out side your window is about 8 minits OLD that is how long it takes light from the sun to reach the earth.
So no it wont be years untill we know about mager changes in the sun only minits.
The next closes star to us is alpha centary wich is about 4.5 light years .
( the amount of time it takes for the light to start from the star untill youn see the light.
light reaches mars in about 13 minits our solar system is apx 2 light days accross meaning it takes light two days to reach the farthest area of our solar system .So even if you were on pluto it wouldent be long untill you know something major hhad changed on the sun.

In addition, its takes most sun spots about 3 days to reach earth since they move much slower than the speed of light. So we actually get about 3 days warning to take whatever measures we can to protect our satalites.

Quest, any shortcuts in brain?

I think you meant coronal mass ejection. (CME)

To See the spots, about 8.5 minutes.

To FEEL the effects of a CME, usually 2-3 days. The speed can vary,]
But those chunks o' sun, travel at around 1 million MPH..

Here is a thread I started regarding a BIG CME series, with links to a NASA story.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Ok, hypothetically. Say the Earth explodes or dies or whatever it does, it would be catastrophic to the Earth. Would we know immediately or would it take 8.5 minutes or 2-3 days?

I guess you mean explosion of sun.

First electromagnetic radiation (IR, light, UV, X-ray, gamma) travel at speed of light so radiation of explosion would "fry" earth after that 8� minutes.
And I think in case of explosion of star shockwave travels also much faster that any CME.

But don't worry, our sun can't go to supernova...mass is too low. (and it would have fried Earth already before it)

www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu...
www.solstation.com...

E_T, yeah, brainspasm. I meant CME not sun spot. Though if a sun spot came flying at the earth that sure would be something.

Oh...and to help ease you mind deeprivergal, stars aren't known to randomly explode. Unless they bump into something very large they are rather predictable.