A "cannibalistic" solar storm is about to slam into Earth's magnetic field, triggering vibrant auroras that will potentially be visible in up to 18 different U.S. states, just in time for Labor Day.
On Saturday (Aug. 30), sunspot 4204, located near the sun's equator, unleashed a long-duration, M-class solar flare — the second most powerful type of eruption our home star's surface is capable of producing. The M2.7 magnitude blast, which occurred over more than 3 hours, also spat out a fast-moving cloud of magnetized plasma, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), which NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft revealed was "heading straight for Earth," according to Spaceweather.com.
