Solar Storm May Supercharge Weekend Northern Lights
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 13 July 2012 Time: 11:05 AM ET
|
| An X1.4 class
flare erupted from the center of the sun, peaking on July 12, 2012 at
12:52 PM EDT. It erupted from Active Region 1520 which rotated into view
on July 6. CREDIT: NASA/SDO/AIA |
A massive solar eruption may trigger an exceptional weekend northern lights display, perhaps bringing the phenomenon into view as far south as California and Alabama, a NASA scientist says.
The sun unleashed an X-class solar flare — the most powerful type — at 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT) on Thursday (July 12). The storm also triggered a huge eruption of solar plasma known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME, which is now streaking directly toward Earth at roughly 3 million mph (5 million kph).
The CME is expected to hit our planet at 6:20 a.m. EDT (1020 GMT) Saturday (July 14), plus or minus seven hours, according to researchers with the Space Weather Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
MORE: http://www.space.com/16572-northern-lights-solar-flare-fallout.html
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