A solar flare over the weekend could lead to stargazing in the sky for the coming days.
On Sunday, May 7 at 6:54 PM EST (22:54 GMT), a sun Released a long-running class M1.5 solar eruption An event of moderate intensity – immediately upon Land. The high levels of radiation associated with this event have already caused minor radio outages on Earth, according to the report Spaceweather.com (Opens in a new tab).
A solar flare has also been linked to a Coronal mass ejection (CME), a solar plasma eruption now heading towards our planet. Spaceweather.com writes that the CME is expected to hit Earth early Wednesday (May 10) morning, which could result in moderate to strong geomagnetic activity when it does.
Related: Wild solar weather throws satellites out of orbit. It will only get worse.
This activity may include supercharged Northern Lights displays. For example, moderate geomagnetic storms can make the aurora visible as far south as New York or Idaho, and strong storms can make people see them all the way down to Illinois or Oregon.
Note, however, that space climateLike Earth’s weather, something is unstable, and forecasts can change at any time.
Solar flares are bright blasts of electromagnetic radiation emitted from sunspots, while electromagnetic flares are ejections of plasma and magnetized particles from the sun that move more slowly through space. Solar flares that hit Earth can cause communications outages, while coronal mass ejections are associated with the aurora borealis. Although it does not necessarily occur simultaneously, the brightest solar flares often coincide with solar flares.
We are heading towards solar maximum, or the time of greatest solar activity, over the next two years we can expect more frequent and larger solar storms. As a result, we should also witness amazing auroral displays.
In fact, the upcoming solar storm is the latest in a string of Earth-shaking space weather events. On Sunday, for example, a similar solar weather event boosted auroral displays for skywatchers across the planet.
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