Other Discoveries from Carrington's Flare

Nugget
Number:	94
1st Author:	Hugh Hudson
2nd Author:
Published:	2 February 2009
Next Nugget:	TBD
Previous Nugget:	Collapsing_traps

Introduction

This is the sesquicentennial of Richard Carrington's solar flare of 1859. He saw it in "white light" as he was measuring sunspots, and the sketch he made (Figure 1) is often displayed.

Figure 1: The Carrington white-light sketch. The emissions were very bright, of a color resembling Alpha Lyrae, and rapidly variable ("mortifying" in his description). These properties have been confirmed by subsequent observations.