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Space
Space
Science
Daisy Dobrijevic

Aurora alert! Butterfly-shaped 'hole' in sun's atmosphere could spark geomagnetic storm Sept. 13-14

Graphic showing two panel image with a the sun on the left with a large dark patch in the shape of a butterfly - the coronal hole and on the right is a ribbon of aurora dancing in the sky above snow-capped mountains.

A colossal butterfly-shaped coronal hole has opened in the sun's atmosphere and is currently spewing a fast-moving stream of solar wind toward Earth that could trigger a moderate geomagnetic storm and dazzling auroras this weekend.

The high-speed solar wind from this striking feature, spanning some 310,000 miles (500,000 kilometers) across, is expected to reach Earth around Sept. 14.

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