A massive eruption on the sun that flung solar plasma toward Earth on Friday may trigger a strong geomagnetic storm this weekend that could supercharge auroras across the northern United States.
The solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection (or CME), exploded on Friday (March 21) even as a so-called "coronal hole" opened on the sun to unleash a separate high-speed stream of solar particles toward Earth. The result: A tag-team of solar material that should reach Earth this weekend to amplify northern lights displays late Saturday and early Sunday (March 22-23).
