In the midst of droughts, wildfires, rapidly disappearing sea ice, and El Niño, it’s easy to get caught up in weather here on Earth. But there’s a little-known weather event that could do considerably more damage. What’s worse, we’ve done little to prepare for it — and have no way to stop it. It’s called a coronal mass ejection (CME) and its effects can be disastrous.
CMEs are enormous blobs of magnetized plasma that the sun hurls from its surface anywhere from several times a day to once a week. A CME can have a billion tons of mass, pack the energy of 20 million nuclear bombs, and — if aimed in our direction — reach Earth in a matter of hours. To understand what they can do, one need only look up the Carrington event of September 1859. That’s when Earth was hit simultaneously by a CME and a solar flare, both the largest on record. FULL REPORT
I have dreamed of this last week. It was so real. The sun was unbelievably massive. So orange with streaks of black lines. It was spewing out theses sun squrits in and out. Almost like a smooth octopus tentacles. I felt so blessed dreaming this vision. Grace Miller