AN INTENSE burst of radiation fired from the Sun is expected to batter Earth’s atmosphere tomorrow, according to space weather trackers.
The hot material, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) erupted from our closest star on January 30 following an enormous solar flare.
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It’s now on a collision course with our planet and it is predicted to arrive in the early hours of Wednesday, according to data from Nasa’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
The highly-charged cloud of particles could trigger showings of the northern lights at higher latitudes, says astronomer Dr Tony Phillips.
Writing on his website spaceweather.com, which tracks the sun’s activity, he explained that the CME could cause a G2-rated solar storm on Earth.
“Moderately-strong G2-class geomagnetic storms are possible after the CME arrives,” Dr Phillps said.
“During such storms, auroras can spill out of the Arctic Circle into northern-tier US states from New York to Minnesota to Washington.
“Power grids and satellites are in no danger, however. This is a low hazard ‘auroras only’ space weather event.”
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Solar storms are caused by CMEs, which are huge expulsions of hot material called plasma from the Sun’s outer layer.
They can lead to the appearance of colourful auroras by energising particles in our planet’s atmosphere
Each solar storm is graded by severity on a scale of one to five, with a G1 described as “minor” and a G5 as “extreme”.
At the upper end of the scale, storms wreak havoc on our planet’s magnetic field, which can disrupt power grids and communications networks.
“Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground,” Nasa says.
“However – when intense enough – they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.”
Thankfully, Wednesday’s flare is not intense enough to impact life or technology on Earth.
In the past, larger solar flares have wreaked havoc on our planet.
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, they can cause harm to astronauts working on the International Space Station, either through radiation exposure or by interfering with mission control communications.
The Earth’s magnetic field helps to protect us from the more extreme consequences of solar flares.
Weaker solar flares are responsible for auroras like the Northern Lights.
Those natural light displays are examples of the Earth’s magnetosphere getting bombarded by solar wind, which creates the bright green and blue displays.
The sun is currently at the start of a new 11 year solar cycle, which usually sees eruptions and flares grow more intense and extreme.
These events are expected to peak around 2025 and it’s hoped the Solar Orbiter will observe them all as it aims to fly within 26 million miles of the sun.
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In other news, a four-tonne chunk of a SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the Moon, according to online space junk trackers.
Boeing has sunk $450million into a flying taxi startup that hopes to whisk passengers across cities by the end of the decade.
Personalised smart guns, which can be fired only by verified users, may finally become available to U.S. consumers this year.
And, scientists are embarking on a mission to unravel the mystery behind dozens of grisly child mummies buried in an underground tomb in Sicily.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
