Strong solar eruption expected to impact on Earth’s magnetic field

The Sun emitted its strongest solar flare so far this year today, causing a temporary radio blackout and sending a blast of radiation and charged particles that is expected to glance off of Earth's magnetic field sometime in the next two days.

The eruption, which ranked as an M6.5 solar flare, exploded from sunspot AR1719 at 7:16 UTC (3:16 a.m. EDT), and was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

During this flare, solar material stretched out along the magnetic field lines of the sunspot with such force that the loop of material snapped, launching a coronal mass ejection (CME) out from the Sun's surface. Since AR1719 is pointed almost directly at the Earth, this CME is expected to score a glancing blow on the planet's magnetic field sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

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Other than the temporary radio blackout caused by the flare, no damage is expected from this eruption. However, NOAA's Space Weather site is reporting that the impact may touch off a geomagnetic storm and increased aurora activity. M-class solar flares aren't the strongest that our Sun can put out, but a geomagnetic storm caused by one can still be a problem for satellites and astronauts in low Earth orbit.

(Image and video courtesy: NASA/SDO)

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