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Strongest solar flare in four years washes over Earth

FEB 18, 2011
Physics Today
BBC : Three days ago, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory detected an ultraviolet flare emanating from a sunspot. Hot particles associated with the flare have already reached Earth. Although observations from two other spacecraft, STEREO-B and SOHO, suggest that the stream of particles is not powerful enough to knock out power grids, it will likely affect telecommunications on Earth, brighten and enlarge the polar auroras, and qualify as the strongest in four years.
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Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.

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