Earths defenses against the Sun have failed.
Data from NASA’s THEMIS satellite showed that a 4,000-mile-thick (6,437-kilometer-thick) layer of solar particles has gathered and is rapidly growing within the outermost part of the magnetosphere, a protective bubble created by Earth’s magnetic field.
Normally the magnetosphere blocks most of the solar wind, flowing outward from the sun at about a million miles (1.6 million kilometers)
Solar winds—charged particles from the sun —help create auroras, the brightly colored lights that sometimes appear above the Earth’s poles.
But the winds also trigger storms that can interfere with satellites’ power sources, endanger spacewalkers, and even knock out power grids on Earth.
“The sequence we’re expecting … is just right to put particles in and energize them to create the biggest geomagnetic storms, the brightest auroras, the biggest disturbances in Earth’s radiation belts,” said David Sibeck, a space-weather expert at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
At least we’ll have something pretty to look at when all the lights go out…
LINK (National Geographic)
