by A beautiful and ghostly “butterfly” has risen from the sun, unfolding its ethereal, gauzy wings in two expanding arcs of plasma.
Astronomers spotted the unusual solar flare known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) explodes from the other side of the Sun Friday (March 10), according to spaceweather.com.
CMEs come from sunspots, regions on the Sun’s surface that have been strong magnetic fields, created by the flow of electrical charges, form knots before abruptly breaking. The resulting energy release can eject gigantic clouds of solar material from the sun’s surface into the solar system. Once launched, CMEs travel millions of kilometers per hour, sweeping up charged particles from the solar wind to form a giant combined wavefront.
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“Most CMEs look like a smoke ring or halo. This one was different,” says an update from space-weather.com (opens in new tab). “We’ll never know what kind of explosion caused its insect-like shape because the blast site was on the other side of the sun. The sun itself blocked our view.”
This particular sun burp is not expected to hit Earth, but is expected to hit Mercury, according to NASA. Once it strikes the planet closest to the Sun, the CME could potentially punch through Mercury’s weak magnetic field, tearing off part of the planet’s surface and throwing it onto its comet-like tail. Other portions of this cleaned and uplifted material will briefly hover over Mercury, giving the little planet a temporary atmosphere.
Although our planet’s much stronger magnetic field can absorb the high-velocity fire from sun debris, CMEs hitting Earth can still create impressive geomagnetic storms. During these storms, the Earth’s magnetic field is slightly compressed by waves of high-energy particles. These particles trickle down magnetic field lines near the poles and move molecules in the atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of light to create colorful auroras known as the Northern Lights.
More intense geomagnetic storms can disrupt our planet’s magnetic field enough to send satellites crashing to Earth, and scientists have warned that extreme geomagnetic storms could even shut down the internet.
The largest solar storm in recent history was the Carrington event of 1859, which released about as much energy as 10 billion 1-megaton atomic bombs. After impacting Earth, the powerful stream of solar particles burned telegraph systems around the world and caused auroras brighter than the light of the full moon to appear as far away as the Caribbean.
Scientists warn that if a similar event happened today, it would cause trillions in damage, trigger widespread power outages and put thousands of lives at risk. A solar storm in 1989 released a billion-ton cloud of gas that caused a power outage across Quebec, NASA reported (opens in new tab).
Scientists expect the Sun’s activity to increase steadily over the next few years, reaching an overall maximum in 2025 before declining again.
