A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the sun on Tuesday evening, reaching Earth by Thursday at 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time, traveling at nearly 1.5 million miles per hour (2.4 million km per hour), according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).
An international team of scientists has discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analysing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps.
Solar storms have proven to be quite disruptive in the past. The energy particles can also be damaging to electronic equipment and astronauts or passengers in high-flying aircraft and also can trigger radio blackouts.
