Even the sun is not above launching a few New Year's Eve fireworks, it seems. In the final hours of Dec. 31, 2023, satellites near Earth detected a gargantuan X5-class solar flare erupting from our star — ending the year with the single most powerful solar explosion seen since 2017.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the flare was accompanied by a gargantuan blob of high-speed solar particles known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), which may graze Earth's magnetic field today (Jan. 2), possibly triggering widespread auroras across the sky and minor geomagnetic storms. Typically, the best places to view auroras are near Earth's poles, but CMEs can push those auroras to much lower latitudes than usual.
