'Canyon of Fire' Solar Storm Headed Our Way, But There's No Need to Panic

Solar winds from the snapping of a gigantic "canyon of fire" on the Sun are set to slam into the Earth today or tomorrow.

Sun watchers first saw dark, thread-like lines against the Sun's bright background.

Then, on 15 July, a filament that had snaked its way down our star's northern hemisphere erupted, carving out a roughly 238,880-mile-long (384,400 kilometers) and 12,400-mile-deep (20,000 km) canyon of fire.

According to the star's magnetic field, the sun's atmosphere is made of huge arcs of electric gas.

The giant magnetic tubes can hold a lot of plasma above the Sun's surface, but they're also very unstable and can cause big eruptions of solar wind.

Scientists are concerned about the ancient solar storm smashing Earth at the wrong part of the Sun's cycle.

The long snake-like Filament cartwheeled its way off the Sun in a stunning ballet.

It's going to be difficult to predict the magnetic orientation of the storm. If the storm's magnetic field is oriented to the south, there could be G3 conditions.

There are two types of storms: moderate and strong.

The CME is expected to hit Earth today or tomorrow. Our magnetic field is very strong on planets that have strong magnetic fields.

The sun's northern hemisphere has a burst of solar material. The Solar Dynamics Observatory is part of NASA.

During these storms, Earth's magnetic field gets compressed by the waves of highly energetic particles, which trickle down magnetic-field lines near the poles and release energy in the form of light, similar to the ones that make up the Northern.

The storm coming from this area is not very strong. It's classified as a G1 solar storm and has the potential to cause fluctuations in power grids and impact some satellite functions. As far south as Michigan and Maine, it will bring the northern lights.

Satellites can fall to Earth if the planet's magnetic field is disrupted by more extreme storms.

The space weather prediction center says that it can take up to 18 hours for the debris to reach Earth.

The Sun is going into its most active phase of its solar cycle. It is the second solar storm in a day.

The sun has been more active than expected, with nearly double the sunspot appearances predicted by the government.

The Sun is projected to increase in activity over the next few years, reaching an overall maximum in 2025.

A new model for the Sun's activity was proposed in a paper published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

According to scientists, the largest solar storm ever witnessed was the 1859 Carrington event, which released the same amount of energy as 10 billion atomic bombs.

After slamming into Earth, the powerful stream of solar particles fried telegraph systems all over the world, causing the Auroras to appear as far south as the Caribbean.

It would cause trillions of dollars in damage if a solar storm were to happen today, similar to the 1989 solar storm that caused a huge swath of Canada to go without power.

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The original article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.