#solaractivity

Hey, did you hear about the mega-bubble that collapsed on the Sun last year? It was so huge that it triggered an explosion that was supposed to hit Earth and cause a massive geomagnetic storm. But then something weird happened. The explosion missed us by a hair and passed mostly south of our planet. We only got a glancing blow that caused some minor auroras on higher latitudes. How lucky is that?😅

Apparently, this event was captured by a satellite called GOES-16, which has an extreme ultraviolet telescope that can see the Sun’s atmosphere. The bubble was actually a giant loop of plasma and magnetic fields that rose from the Sun’s surface and then snapped back, releasing a lot of energy. This is called a coronal mass ejection (CME) and it can travel through space at millions of kilometers per hour. If it hits Earth head-on, it can disrupt our power grids, satellites, and communications. Not to mention the beautiful but potentially dangerous auroras that can appear in the sky.

But why did the CME miss us? Well, it turns out that the direction and orientation of the CME’s magnetic fields are very important. They have to match with Earth’s magnetic field in order to cause a strong interaction. In this case, they didn’t match, so the CME just slid past us without much effect. It’s like trying to connect two magnets with the wrong poles facing each other. They just repel each other.

So we dodged a bullet there, but who knows when the next big CME will come our way? The Sun is very active right now as it reaches the peak of its 11-year cycle. That means more sunspots, flares, and CMEs are likely to happen in the near future. We better hope that our planet’s magnetic shield holds up and protects us from these solar storms. Otherwise, we might be in for some serious trouble.😱