NASA captures the ‘smile of the sun’: Experts warn that geomagnetic storms will hit Earth in dark moments
The American Fun Science website published a report titled “The “smiling” sun may hit the earth with a geomagnetic storm this weekend,” said a report that some people say that when you smile, the whole world laughs with you. But when the sun smiles, the world is bathed in a downpour of plasma. That’s the unfortunate subtext that emerges when our nearest star shows us its lovely “smiley face.”
NASA says these happy blobs are actually coronal holes — the regions in the corona, the outermost atmosphere of the sun, through which the solar wind travels into space.
Coronal holes, much like sunspots, appear black because they are cooler than the surrounding plasma. Through these “cool” portals, the sun’s constant wind of charged particles pours into space at more than 1.6 million kilometers per hour.
Astronomers expect the wind of charged particles to smash into Earth’s magnetic field sometime on October 29 or 30, potentially triggering a mini-geomagnetic storm. And even the weakest geomagnetic storm—a G1 class—has the potential to disrupt the operation of orbiting satellites and cause small-scale grid fluctuations on Earth.
Despite the friendly smile on the photo, experts have warned that the sun’s coronal hole could mean a solar storm is about to “hit” Earth.
The solar magnetic storm refers to the fact that when the sun’s surface is active, especially during the maximum sunspot period, the number of flare explosions on the sun surface will also increase, and X-rays, ultraviolet rays, visible light, and high-energy protons and Electron beam.
It is reported that during a magnetic storm, satellites cannot detect the earth for a short time, and all electronic devices on the earth will be affected.
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