SPACE Weather experts have predicted that a mass ejection of particles from the Sun has a chance of hitting Earth today.
A direct hit could result in a storm and even power grid disruptions on Earth.
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According to SpaceWeather.com, geomagnetic storms could be possible today or tomorrow.
The experts said: “Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible on July 20th or 21st when a slow-moving CME is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field.
“The CME was hurled into space by an unstable filament of magnetism, which erupted on July 15th.”
A CME is a solar eruption called a coronal mass ejection, a huge expulsion of plasma from the Sun’s outer layer, called the corona.
This mass ejection of particles from the Sun travels through space and the Earth uses its magnetic field to protect us from it.
Each solar storm that hits Earth is graded by severity and this one is only expected to be a “G1-class”.
This means it could cause weak power grid fluctuations and have a small impact on satellite communications.
Solar storms can also confuse some animals that rely on the magnetic field for direction.
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This includes some migratory birds and even whales.
One good thing about solar storms is that they can produce very pretty natural light displays like the northern lights.
Those natural light displays are called auroras and are examples of the Earth’s magnetosphere getting bombarded by solar wind, which creates the pretty green and blue displays.
The Earth’s magnetic field helps to protect us from the more extreme consequences of solar flares but it can’t stop all of them.
In 1989, a strong solar eruption shot so many electrically charged particles at Earth that the Canadian Province of Quebec lost power for nine hours.
As well as causing issues for our tech on Earth, they can be deadly for an astronaut if they result in injury or interfere with mission control communications.
The Sun has started one of its 11-year solar cycles, which usually sees eruptions and flares grow more intense and extreme.
