Uploaded February 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
An X1.7 flare (X represents the largest category) and a coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the Sun (January 27-28, 2012) from the same active region that produced a smaller but Earth-directed storm a few days earlier. This resulting solar storm was not squarely Earth-directed, but the clouds of high-energy protons that it emitted continued to hit the SOHO spacecraft detectors for over a day and did generate a minor radiation storm on Earth.
(SOHO is about a million miles towards the Sun from Earth.) The CME raced away from the Sun at a fast at 2500 km/s or 5.6 million mph clip.
Credit: NASA / ESA SOHO
An X1.7 flare (X represents the largest category) and a coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the Sun (January 27-28, 2012) from the same active region that produced a smaller but Earth-directed storm a few days earlier. This resulting solar storm was not squarely Earth-directed, but the clouds of high-energy protons that it emitted continued to hit the SOHO spacecraft detectors for over a day and did generate a minor radiation storm on Earth.
(SOHO is about a million miles towards the Sun from Earth.) The CME raced away from the Sun at a fast at 2500 km/s or 5.6 million mph clip.
Credit: NASA / ESA SOHO
