Story at a glance
- Astronomers are tracking a coronal mass ejection (CME), which consists of burst of gas and magnetic fields stemming from the sun.
- The CME is expected to reach Earth on Wednesday, Feb. 2, but only spark a few hours of auroras.
- This week’s CME is part of sun cycle 2025, an 11-year activity cycle when the Sun’s poles completely flip.
An intense burst of solar gas and magnetic fields has been traveling through space and is expected to arrive at Earth this week.
Known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), the solar phenomenon is a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field stemming from the sun’s corona. CMEs are capable of ejecting billions of tons of coronal material and travel outward from the sun at speeds ranging from slower than 250 kilometers per second to as fast as 3,000 km/s.
Slower CMEs can take several days to arrive, while they expand in size as they propagate away from the sun. Larger CMEs can reach a size comparable to a quarter of the space between Earth and the sun by the time it reaches our planet.
According to Space.com, solar particles from a CME will hit Earth starting Wednesday, and that means parts of the planet could possibly experience a G-2 class geomagnetic storm. It’s considered a “low hazard” geomagnetic storm, but could spark hours of auroras from the Arctic Circle into the northern U.S., as far south as New York.
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These types of solar storms do not interfere with power grids or satellites.
The CME nearing Earth this week is considered a “halo CME,” one that appears larger than the sun in coronagraph images as the solar particles approach Earth, giving it a circular halo effect.
The sun’s weather follows an 11-year activity cycle, and this week’s CME is part of solar cycle 25, the sun’s current activity phase. Solar cycle 25 began in 2020 and is scheduled to peak in July 2025.
Every 11 years the sun’s magnetic fields completely flip, and as a result giant eruptions on the sun, like solar flares and coronal mass ejections, occur. That can affected Earth by causing lights in the sky, called aurora, or upset radio communications. Some extreme eruptions can even affect electricity grids on Earth.
Tracking the sun’s cycles can protect radio communications on Earth and keep NASA satellites and astronauts safe.
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