The satellite captures the solar storm that erupted over the Pleiades star cluster

This massive CME jumped from the sun’s far side. The impressive scene captured attention SpaceWeather.coma clearing house for space weather information, which shares images.

The Southern and Northern Lights sweep across the planet in a stunning display of the Northern Lights

Monday’s CME took the form of a “CME full halo,” or a shape that produces a ring-like signature on instruments, in this case the SOHO satellite. The interstellar shock wave seemed to radiate outwards in all directions, reminiscent of the ripples surrounding a rock that had fallen into a pond.

When directed toward Earth, the entire halo collides with Earth’s magnetosphere, or our protective magnetic field, and is often associated with imminent displays of the northern and southern lights, or the aurora borealis and australis, respectively. Such powerful solar storms can destroy electrical infrastructure, damage satellites, and even cause unhealthy radiation to airline passengers flying near the poles.

However, in this case, the CME was moving away from Earth, possibly at speeds of more than a million miles per hour, meaning there was no potential impact.

The CME captured by SOHO was particularly notable for passing in front of the Pleiades, a star cluster about 444 light-years from Earth (meaning the light we see when we look at the stars is actually from Shakespeare’s time). Before SOHO was launched in 1995, spotting stars from a sensor pointed at the sun was only a pipe dream.

Why are “solar flares” becoming more common?

Many coronal mass ejections are preceded by solar flares, which are more concentrated filaments of magnetism and visible light that can last from minutes to hours.

The majority of solar flares and CMEs come from sunspots, or color changes that look like bruises on the sun’s surface. They are regions of cooler temperatures from which the magnetic flux is emitted. Sunspots are born from interactions between overlapping magnetic bands that surround the sun.

Sunspots are most common every 11 years at the peak of the “solar cycle”. While any sunspot can produce an effective CME and solar storm for Earth, a greater number of sunspots means a greater propensity for forcing events.

The continuous solar cycle, the twenty-fifth that scientists tracked, “floated to life” faster than expected, According to SpaceWeather.comand is expected to peak anywhere from late 2024 to 2025.

Indeed, the sun has been bustling with activity in recent months. Multiple, breathtaking displays of the northern lights have reached as far south as even the southern United States, and more may be in the near future.