THE Sun is going through a period of increased activity and that means more solar storms could be heading our way.
Scientists think a solar eruption that blasted from the Sun on June 26 could come close to Earth today.
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The eruption is being reffered to as a potential “near-miss” from a CME.
A CME is a solar eruption called a coronal mass ejection, which is 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.
The experts at SpaceWeather.com explained: “A slow-moving CME that left the sun on June 26th could pass close to Earth today.
“The near miss, if it occurs, could disturb our planet’s magnetic field and spark high latitude auroras.
“Bright displays are unlikely, but the nearly New Moon will allow long photographic exposures to capture faint lights.”
Auroras are one of the positives of solar storms.
The most famous example is the Northern Lights.
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Those natural light displays are examples of the Earth’s magnetosphere getting bombarded by solar wind, which creates the pretty green and blue shapes in the sky.
The Earth’s magnetic field helps to protect us from the more extreme consequences of solar ejections and flares but it can’t stop all of them.
If a solar ejection does directly hit Earth it can cause a strong solar storm.
This can cause problems with the power grid, satellite communications and even radio blackouts.
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.
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
