In mid-May, a once-in-a-lifetime outbreak of the Northern and Southern Lights lit up the skies worldwide. Delicate reds were seen as far south as Jamaica, Mexico and India, with dancing curtains of green lighting up the landscape across much of the northern and central Lower 48. The perpetrator? A geomagnetic storm, fueled by high-energy particles … Read more
Another coronal mass ejection from the sun could make the Northern Lights visible again over parts of New England on Friday evening. Even if the aurora’s geomagnetic glow doesn’t light up the sky over Massachusetts, there’s still a spectacular chance to see another solar phenomenon. Three weeks ago, a solar storm erupted from a huge … Read more
A powerful solar flare has spewed from the same sunspot that produced the spectacular Northern Lights displays on May 10. The May 29 solar flare was measured as a class X1.4 eruption, one of the most powerful types of solar flares, and caused radio blackouts in the US and Western Europe. The sunspot that caused … Read more