Magnetic disturbances on the sun hurled two colossal bursts of charged particles into space on Sunday.
The larger of two solar storms erupted from the sunspot AR 1429 at 11:13 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 4. According to a NASA forecast, it should entirely miss Earth.
A second solar storm from earlier in the day, however, should give Earth a glancing blow tonight.
The exact size of the bursts, formally known as coronal mass ejections, aren't yet known.
In terms of energy, the larger burst is an X1.1-class eruption -- among the strongest measured by astronomers. A direct hit by an X-class storm can cause radio blackouts, cripple satellites and heat wires. Thankfully, the current space forecast suggests the burst should miss Earth.
Yet the Space Weather Prediction Center today announced that the earlier event, an M2.0-class storm which left the sun around 5:49 a.m. EST on Sunday, may spawn a minor radiation storm tonight.
"It will also impact Mercury, Venus, and likely Mars," heliophysicist Leila Mays wrote to Wired.
Such powerful solar storms are expected to increase as the sun moves toward solar maximum, the end of an 11-year cycle in which its magnetic fields become increasingly contorted.
The sun's worst magnetic contortions typically appear over sunspots. When magnetic field lines break and reconnect, charged particles traveling along them can be flung into space.
Correction: The original article misstated that a X1.1-class coronal mass ejection would impact Earth. NASA's Leila Mays clarified that a weaker M2.0-class event from March 4 should cause a minor geomagnetic storm tonight, Mon. March 5.
*Images: 1) An ultraviolet composite view from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a coronal mass ejection erupting from sunspot AR 1429 on March 5, 2012. (SDO/NASA) 2) An animation of the X1.1-class coronal mass ejection. (SOHO/NASA) 3) In this computer-generated forecast, an M2.0-class coronal mass ejection plows through the solar system. The Earth (yellow dot) is predicted to receive a glancing blow from the event tonight. (NASA)
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Via: Spaceweather.com
