A "cannibal" coronal mass ejection birthed from multiple solar storms, including a surprise "dark eruption," is currently on a collision course with Earth and could trigger a sizable geomagnetic storm on our planet when it hits on Tuesday (July 18).
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large, fast-moving clouds of magnetized plasma and solar radiation that occasionally get flung into space alongside solar flares — powerful explosions on the sun's surface that are triggered when horseshoe-shaped loops of plasma located near sunspots snap in half like an overstretched elastic band. If CMEs smash into Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms — disturbances in our planet's magnetic field — that can trigger partial radio blackouts and produce vibrant aurora displays much farther away from Earth's magnetic poles than normal.
