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On October 6th, a coronal mass ejection was spotted on the Sun's surface. Coronal mass ejections are events that occur when large amounts of plasma are sent out into space at high velocity's due to the magnetic field interacting with the Sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona.
In this image, you can see the size of a large coronal mass ejection. These events occur due to the Sun's powerful magnetic field interacting with electrically charged plasma. Once the magnetic field "closes" in the Sun's atmosphere, millions (or billions) of tons of charged plasma are ejected from the surface of the Sun, and sent into interplanetary space.
Recently, a type G2 moderate CME was detected, heading for Earth, and will hit Earth's magnetosphere on October 9th. CME's are extremely powerful storms, and without the Earth's powerful magnetic field, the atmosphere would be continously stripped away from the planet. We can observe these effects at our planetary neighbor, Mars. Mars does not have a global magnetic field like we do, and therefore, its atmosphere has been continually weakened to the point that it is only 0.6% of Earth's atmopshere in pressure (sea level).Â
When the CME hits Earth's magnetosphere, it will form what is known as a bow shock, where the plasma will curve and be shot out by the interaction with the plasma. There will be no major harmful effects for Earth, but there will be increased aurora activity. CME events and their plasma still slip through the protective barrier that is our magentic field, and small amounts of plasma ionize the upper atmosphere, causing it to glow in different colors. These are known as auroras, or "the northern lights".
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