ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 30, 2021
On Thursday, the sun launched what is called an “X-class solar flare” that was strong enough to spark a high-frequency radio blackout across parts of South America. The energy from that flare is trailed by a cluster of solar plasma and other material called a coronal mass ejection, or CME for short. That’s heading toward Earth, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a warning about a potentially strong geomagnetic storm. It might sound like something from a science fiction movie. But really it just means that a good chunk of the northern part of the country may get treated to a light show called the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights.