The sun fired off an intense solar storm at the Earth recently — the second in two days — hurtling billions of tons of charged particles at our planet, but it should not pose a threat to people on the ground, NASA says. The solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, occurred Wednesday at 1:24 a.m. ET and sent charged particles streaking outward at 380 miles per second. That's just over 1.3 million mph (2.2 million kilometers per hour). The solar fallout from the sun storm is expected to reach Earth within the next three days.
The solar storm on Wednesday erupted just 21 hours after another powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) on Tuesday. That solar tempest also sent billions of tons of solar particles on their way to Earth. "These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground," NASA officials explained in a statement.
"Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they funnel energy into Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time," NASA officials said. "The CME’s magnetic fields peel back the outermost layers of Earth's fields, changing their very shape. In the past, geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of this strength have usually been mild."
Powerful geomagnetic storms can affect communications signals and spark electrical surges in power grids. They can also supercharge northern lights displays or aurora observers at high latitudes. The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle and is expected to reach its peak activity later this year. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24.
To know more about CMEs and how they compare with solar flares, click here.
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