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A massive solar storm is heading toward Earth, threatening to disrupt communications, navigation systems, and power grids around the world. NASA issued the warning after a powerful burst of energy from the sun last week, which measured as an X2.7-class solar flare, the highest category for solar flares. Solar flares are intense bursts of radiation that come from sunspots — darker, cooler areas on the sun's surface — and are among the most powerful explosions in the solar system. These flares can last from a few minutes to several hours.

Approximately 14,000 years ago, the unprecedented solar event—now judged to be the most powerful known to have occurred—marked Earth’s transition into the Holocene epoch, according to the findings of an international team of scientists. The team traces the event to around 12,350 BC using a new climate-chemistry model specifically designed to reconstruct ancient solar particle activity. This expands the known timeline for ancient solar storms and raises the bar on the upper boundaries of their intensity. Although the event in question was already known from past observations of radiocarbon spikes in ancient wood samples, its scale and magnitude remained unknown....

Could this be the Perfect Geo-storm? October is off to a hot start: The sun unleashed a massive X-class solar flare — the “strongest of its kind,” according to Space.com — that has the potential to pummel our planet with a powerful geomagnetic storm this week. The supercharged sunburst erupted from sunspot AR3842 on Tuesday evening. It clocked in at X7.1, making it the second most powerful in the last seven years after the monster X8.7 magnitude in May, Live Science reported. This also triggered a coronal mass ejection (CME) — when plasma and magnetic particles burst forth from the...

NEXSTAR) – It’s been almost 20 years since we’ve seen a geomagnetic storm as strong as the one heading our way this weekend. Power operators and other groups that maintain critical infrastructure are preparing for what might happen when the coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, hit Earth. But is there anything you should be doing? A G4-level solar storm, such as the one expected to hit as soon as Friday evening, can cause issues with the power grid, radio communications and the accuracy of GPS.

Earth could suffer the worst solar storm in 165 years as six streams of plasma that erupted from the sun this week are set to make crash into our atmosphere tonight. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed Friday that the worst-case scenario would be what happened during the 1859 Carrington event, which set telegraph stations on fire, cutting communications worldwide. In our modern-day society a geomagnetic storm - a major disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere- of that magnitude would cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts and damage to critical infrastructure.

A powerful solar storm will make the northern lights visible to most of America — including the New York City area — Friday night, but you’ll need to get out of the city if you want a chance at seeing the auroras. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has upgraded the looming geomagnetic solar storm to a level 4, which is capable of disrupting America’s electrical grid and making the northern lights visible as far south as Alabama. The key to witnessing the natural phenomena will depend on the amount of cloud coverage and light population, making upstate New...

Imagine a world where you couldn’t call or text anyone, you couldn’t put gas in your car, you could pay for things, and there was no tap in your water. A nightmare, right? ... Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid is warning that such a scenario isn’t a foreign possibility. During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Quaid highlighted the dangers of a solar storm that could kill more than 90 percent of the population within a year. “Basically, there is a 100 percent probability that our sun, generating what they call a GMD, which is a solar storm, that hits hard, hits...

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued G1-Minor and G2-Moderate Geomagnetic Storm Watches that will run from Feb. 16-18 due to the continuing effects of the Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). According to the SWPC, the geomagnetic storm may affect satellite operations and could even lead to weak power-grid fluctuations. In addition, migratory animals could be affected, and the Northern Lights may be visible farther south than usual, like in northern Michigan and Maine. A second CME was also observed on the sun on Wednesday, and officials said the effects could begin to impact Earth starting late Friday morning or Friday afternoon.

A huge solar storm will strike Earth on Thursday, potentially disrupting power grids and pushing the aurora as far south as Michigan and Maine. Alerts issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration early Thursday morning ranked as a K-5 index (out of 9). A ranking of five or above is needed for the administration to issue an alert for upcoming solar storms. Minor impacts to satellites, power grid fluctuations and a visible aurora were noted by NOAA. The highest geomagnetic storm category predicted thus far is a G2 storm on Feb. 18, which is considered “moderate” by NOAA’s rating...

The coronal hole is a gigantic solar gulf stretching across the sun’s center. Coronal holes are areas in the sun's upper atmosphere where our star's electrified gas (or plasma) is less hot and dense than in other regions, which makes them appear black in contrast. Around these holes,the sun's magnetic field lines, instead of looping back in on themselves, point outward into space, beaming solar material outwards at up to 1.8 million mph (2.9 million km/h)... This barrage of energetic solar debris, mostly consisting of electrons, protons and alpha particles, is absorbed by Earth’s magnetic field, which becomes compressed, triggering...

On Nov. 3 a solar storm caused a temporary crack in Earth's magnetic field. The resulting hole enabled energetic particles to penetrate deep into the planet's atmosphere and set off extremely rare pink auroras. An explosion of extremely rare pink auroras recently lit up the night sky above Norway after a solar storm slammed into Earth and ripped a hole in the planet's magnetic field. The breach enabled highly energetic solar particles to penetrate deeper into the atmosphere than normal, triggering the unusual colored lights. The stunning light show was spotted Nov. 3 by a tour group led by Markus...

Yes, it could happen, but it would take a giant solar storm... Solar storms...occur when the sun releases an intense burst of electromagnetic radiation. This disturbance throws off waves of energy that travel outward, impacting other bodies in the solar system, including Earth. When the wayward electromagnetic waves interact with Earth's own magnetic field, they have a couple of effects. The first is that they cause electric currents to flow in Earth's upper atmosphere, heating the air...These geomagnetic storms can create beautiful auroras to appear over polar regions, but they can also disrupt radio signals and GPS. What's more, as...

The Sun has been up to some pretty intense shenanigans lately, but a recent eruption on the far side looks to be absolute science gold. On the evening of September 5 GMT, an enormous coronal mass ejection (CME) was recorded exploding on the far side of the Sun, sending a radiation storm out across the Solar System. It was a type known as a halo CME, in which an expanding halo of hot gas can be seen spewing out around the entire Sun. Sometimes this means that the CME is headed straight for Earth. However, this eruption was on the...

It has been a busy time for solar activity. Back in March of 2022, Earth was hit by separate geomagnetic storms, according to government weather agencies in the U.S. and the U.K. Though the geomagnetic storms likely didn't cause any harm, they brought into focus the potential harm that could come from more powerful storms in the future. Then earlier this month, a G1-class geomagnetic storm hit the Earth, causing bright auroras over Canada. The only problem is that nobody saw this storm coming until it was quite late. Five days ago, a giant sunspot and filaments on the solar...

A solar storm will sweep across the Earth Wednesday night, raising prospects of dazzling Northern Lights visible as far south as Chicago while prompting airlines and electric-grid operators to step up monitoring of the potentially damaging geomagnetic activity. Solar eruptions—called coronal mass ejections—burst from the sun in two waves Monday and are building up enough energy to potentially become a level 3 geomagnetic storm when it hits, according to Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist with the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center. Solar storms, like hurricanes, are ranked on a five-step scale, with one being the weakest and five the strongest....

A powerful solar storm is set to hit Earth on Thursday (March 31) with spectacular aurora displays accompanying it after the sun fired nearly 20 flares from a single sunspot in just two days. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned that two coronal mass ejections (CMEs), spat out from the overactive sunspot AR2975, on Monday (March 28), are heading toward our planet and might trigger a geomagnetic storm rated as G3 on NOAA's five-point scale.

SpaceX has lost dozens of satellites after they were hit by a geomagnetic storm a day after launch, causing them to fall from orbit and burn up.Such solar "storms" are caused by powerful explosions on the sun's surface, which spit out plasma and magnetic fields that can hit the Earth.The company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said up to 40 of 49 satellites from last week's launch were hit.They had been due to join its Starlink satellite internet project.Starlink is Mr Musk's bid to provide high-speed internet using thousands of orbiting satellites. The system is relatively expensive, but can be...

This week's solar storm is bigger than the storm over Halloween. The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), an office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has been monitoring a series of outbursts from our sun that began on Monday (Nov. 1). Since then, the sun has produced several coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are bubbles of hot gas and magnetic field; while such activity can come from any part of the sun, the current examples have headed out into space toward Earth, making them of particular interest to humans. Some sun weather trackers dubbed one of those eruptions...

A powerful solar storm is due to hit Earth today and could cause havoc for power grids, weather agencies have warned. The UK's Met Office and the US's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have forecasted a coronal mass ejection (CME) – a massive expulsion of plasma from the Sun's corona (its outermost layer) at around 12pm EST (5pm BST) today. Possible effects of the solar storm, caused by the CME, are power grid fluctuations and orientation irregularities for spacecraft in the form of 'increased drag' on low-Earth orbiters. The aurora – a natural light display in Earth's sky, also...

The “black swan” event of a solar superstorm directed at earth could prompt an “internet apocalypse” across the entire globe that could last for several months, new research (pdf) has warned. University of California Irvine assistant professor Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi presented the new research, titled “Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse,” last month during the Association for Computing Machinery’s annual conference for their Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM). “One of the greatest dangers facing the internet with the potential for global impact is a powerful solar superstorm,” Jyothi wrote in the new research paper. “Although humans are...