Solar flare will firstly destroy semiconductors, I don't belive it would have enough power to destroy some real stuff. So cars made before 1990 should be relatively OK, because they don't have so much electronics. But first we must survive 21.december.2012 to see that

Quote from KiRmelius :

I wonder, if wrapping small items in aluminum foil will protect them?

WIKI says: A booster bag (shopping bag lined with aluminium foil) acts as a Faraday cage. It is often used by shoplifters to steal RFID-tagged items.[4]

Quote from THE WIZARD DK :

look at some very old photos of the moon, and one taken today at the same spot, youll notice how small the moon is today.

I think this may be the best thing I have ever read.

Oh god..

Oh my god man

Quote from THE WIZARD DK :

Sorry to bump. solar flares are very powerfull. i for one truly belives that if the sun desides to flame the planets. its surely capable of doing so. i think voayger or viking (havent looked it up atm) which was sent out to space in the 60´s, only just reached outta the suns power rays.(dunno the word in english). the sun extends far beyond pluto and far into space regarding flares and stuff.. the moon is also moving away from earth, having impact on these things aswell. look at some very old photos of the moon, and one taken today at the same spot, youll notice how small the moon is today. lucky us we have the magnetic field protecting us somewhat. but if the sun burst on us. theres nothing to do really. the 1859 flare was powerfull. but going further back, earth has been fried before. so that might happen again. maybe not in 2013, but at some point.

It is the voyager probe, if memory serves voyager 1 went to look at a moon but to do this it had to leave the plane of our solar system whereas voyager 2 carried on it's 'normal' journey and I think it is voyager 2 which is reaching the edge of solar system. The moon though isn't moving away fast enough to really be noticable, again if memory serves it is something like an inch (2.5 cm) per year so for any noticable difference in diameter from earch would take too long to be noticable. One thing that does effect the apparent size of the moon is the time of year due to the atmosphere acting as a lens so it can appear the moon is smaller (or bigger) than on another day.

Quote from Greboth :

It is the voyager probe, if memory serves voyager 1 went to look at a moon but to do this it had to leave the plane of our solar system whereas voyager 2 carried on it's 'normal' journey and I think it is voyager 2 which is reaching the edge of solar system. The moon though isn't moving away fast enough to really be noticable, again if memory serves it is something like an inch (2.5 cm) per year so for any noticable difference in diameter from earch would take too long to be noticable. One thing that does effect the apparent size of the moon is the time of year due to the atmosphere acting as a lens so it can appear the moon is smaller (or bigger) than on another day.

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were part of the "Grand Tour" of the outermost planets of the Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). Both are on their way out of the influence of our Sun. Voyager 1 is believed to be extremely close to exiting into interstellar space (sometime before 2015) - in fact it is the furthest manmade object from Earth, and also nothing using current technology can overtake it unless Voyager 1 runs into something. Voyager 2 was its sister craft, and is heading through the solar system's southern hemisphere. Voyager 1 got a massive gravity assist slingshot from Saturn, sending it out of the plane of the elliptic. Voyager 2 got its final gravity assist slingshot from Neptune.

What impresses me is that they arrange the slingshots whilst close to Earth - I'm guessing the craft don't have thrusters (and if they did they would be long out of fuel), so to make sure it gets close enough to Neptune 20 years later to get a slingshot is, in my mind, pretty impressive. Even if the maths isn't THAT complicated.

Agree. Even tho things or sollutions looks simple they are horrible compplicatted, and as you say to predict so far into the future is mental.

One of the things I find impressive is that the prediction needs to be precise enough and the speeds are high enough that they need to take relativistic effects into account in the calculations, Newtonian physics isn't enough.

They do have thrusters, and I presume they have some fuel left as within the last few years they have done some reorientation of the spacecraft.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

They can make tiny adjustments to their course but they don't carry fuel for sustained thrusting (who does? )