This weekend the Sun’s activity sparked a huge uproar in the scientific world. Seen above is a coronal mass ejection, CME, which is a burst of highly energetic charged particles that break through the Sun’s surface in colossal quantities at high speeds clocking in at 20km/s to 3200km/s (roughly a million miles an hour!!!) into space! According to the solar cycle, which waxes and wanes every eleven years (we’re reaching its peak), we should be experiencing ejections more frequently. Have no fear, our handy-dandy magnetic field repels most charged particles that come into contact with it. However, at both poles — north and south — where the magnetic field is suppressed, charged particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere which causes the beautiful and breath-taking auroras such as the Aurora Borealis (north) and Aurora Australis (you guessed it, its southern counterpart).
(Source: ryandonato, via abcstarstuff)
