Kind: captions
Language: en
[Applause]
I'm just packing my bag for Alaska and
if you want to know why I'm going to
Alaska well you're not the only one it
seems I've become the why guy on a new
Morning Show on Channel 10 called
breakfast now have you ever found
yourself just saying why you've seen
something you thought something you just
gone why well that's why we have our why
guide Dr Derek Mal he's here to answer
all the questions so I'm going to play
you a clip of the live interview I did
this morning talking about why I'm going
up to Alaska and the one that I have for
him right now is what is a solar burp is
is the sun got indigestion what's going
on with this yeah well uh it's actually
not really called a solar burp but a
solar flare or a coronal mass ejection
but you can basically think of it as the
sun giving out a burp which just belches
pieces of itself into space and these
are the images that we're seeing because
this is this only happens every now and
then doesn't it well basically every 11
years a bit like clockwork the sun will
break out in spots and start spewing out
these these hot gases uh fast moving
charge particles and it just sprays it
out into space
why Derek why well the sun has uh is
made of plasma and it has these big big
magnetic fields within it they get all
bunched up coiled up every 11 years and
they sort of spring outwards um to a
lower energy State when they do that
they they send all this matter out into
space but why Derek I'm just kid the
other question I have is what effects
does this have on us here on Earth do we
have any kind of impact on us well there
are some beautiful effects if we get
just a bit of it uh it'll create the
Aurora the beautiful Northern or
Southern light so you can see those over
Tasmania uh or even over the North Pole
around there but there can also be some
negative impacts it can U knock out our
satellites it can destroy um it can
destroy satellites it can cause problems
with our power grids how long's this
expected to last for well a few years so
every 11 years it sort of there's a peak
for about a year or two but there's
nothing for us to worry about from the
whole you know that concept of a solar
flare being big enough just doing golf F
in that se kind either uh no we're far
enough away from the Sun that by the
time it reaches us it's the solar flare
is basically spread out you're now on
the record of saying that no one can
hold you uh that's right well the UK has
actually added the sort of solar
activity to their list of National
Security threats so you know if if the
storm is big enough so the sun is now a
terrorist in a way yeah in 1989 all of
power was knocked out to Quebec uh
because of one of these solar storms
yeah now I'm very jealous you're heading
up to Alaska you're talking about the
Aurora what are you going to do when you
get there well what we're going to go do
is launch HD cameras on weather balloons
and we're going to send them up into the
atmosphere so we're the first team ever
to to do this and we're going to look at
the Aurora from inside film it in HD and
color so how are you going to find these
little things you're sticking them in
weather balloons or something how you
going to track them down cuz they got
they're not going to come down where you
want them yeah so we're going to have to
put some sort of homing beacons on them
and then we're going to have to Trek out
through the Wilderness on dog sleds and
choppers and stuff and try to find this
stuff so what are you going to do when
you get that Vision do we get a chance
to have a look at it up on big screen
Absolutely I'll come and I'll I'll bring
it back and we can have a look at what
we see why Derek well I think everyone
wants to know
it and if we know more about it
hopefully we can you know predict these
solar events in future and we can be
better prepared you know it can expose a
lot of people to radiation so if you're
flying over the poles you might actually
have to have your your flight rerooted
if you're going to get hit by this this
burst of uh particles coming from the
Sun so it does actually have some kind
of imp it has major impacts on us uh you
know it's a it's a significant threat I
have one more question for you here it
says here that the total energy radiated
by the sun averages 383 billion trillion
that sounds my billion billion trillion
wat kilowatts there you go okay yeah
it's still a ridiculous number it's a
it's a huge ridiculous number if we
wrote it up here it would take the whole
board to write it up I mean the sun
admits a crazy amount of energy but uh
most of it doesn't hit the earth of
course because all of that energy
spreads out in space so we just get a
tiny fraction of it I could sit here and
say why all day dere thank you so much
it's a pleasure if you want to see more
of the show you may want to check out
the link in the description and if you
want to see more of me on the show you
may want to comment or write them an
email let them let them know that other
than that I guess I'll see you guys on
the flip side see you in
Alaska