Netizens are baffled as NASA released an 'awesome star' video on Instagram, Thursday. The spectacular video shows the boiling surface of the Sun's erupting waves of solar plasma waves known as Coronal Mass Ejection. The CME was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2013, reports RepublicWorld.
Shared recently on Instagram, the video has reached roughly 3 million views, spellbinding millions of space enthusiasts worldwide.
What Is Coronal Mass Ejection?
Commonly mistaken for solar flares, Coronal Mass Ejections are huge explosions of magnetic fields and plasma from the corona of the Sun. These eject billions of coronal material carrying embedded magnetic fields and are stronger than interplanetary magnetic field strength and background solar wind, according to NOAA.
CMEs travel from the Sun and out towards the galaxy at speeds that range from below 250 kilometers per second to about 3,000 kilometers per second. Fastest CMEs aimed at Earth can reach our planet in as little as 15-18 hours, while slower CMEs can take several days before arriving.
Coronal mass ejection expands as they propagate farther away from the Sun. Large CMEs can reach sizes of almost a quarter of the distance between the Earth and the Sun before it reaches our planet.
In early June, news of a solar flare brushing up on the Earth's atmosphere gave space enthusiasts a buzz. NASA was quick to address, stating that the harmless solar storm was, in fact, a coronal mass ejection that caused no harm to Earth's systems, nor was it strong enough to alter the solar wind around the planet.
Astronomers pointed out that the CME that brushed on the Earth's atmosphere was released from our Sun earlier this week, taking about four days to travel to Earth. The CME was not powerful enough to cause any radio blackout nor interfere with satellite technology and GPS.
Scientists reiterated that the glazing blow due to the storm cloud was weak and was barely powerful enough to change the solar wind speeds circumnavigating the planet, nor did it spark any geomagnetic storms.
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NASA's Awesome Star Video
NASA's video of our solar system's awesome star caught how a coronal mass ejection erupts from the Sun's surface. With colossal waves of solar plasma shooting billions of particles out into space at roughly 1 million miles per hour.
The particular CME shown in the video was seen in ultraviolet light was recorded with the help of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2013 and did not head towards Earth. The agency pointed out in their Instagram post that CMEs are unlike solar flares that are bursts of powerful radiation and have the potential to cause navigation and communication blackouts temporarily. However, if power providers are not prepared, CMEs like this one might momentarily overload electrical infrastructure.
Thankfully, the myriad of solar observations helps us track and study the fascinating components of space weather, preparing Earth systems and reducing the likeliness of disruptions.
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