A gigantic, fiery eruption around 40 times wider than Earth recently exploded from the sun's hidden far side. The eruption hurled a massive cloud of plasma into space that later smashed into Mercury, scouring the planet's rocky surface and potentially triggering"X-ray auroras" on the unprotected world.
SDO data showed that the explosion, which likely left behind a massive"canyon of fire" on the sun's surface, also released a large coronal mass ejection — a fast-moving cloud of magnetied plasma and radiation — that collided with Mercury on March 10. When electrons from CMEs hit Mercury's unprotected surface, they rapidly slow down. This deceleration causes the particles to release energy in the form of X-rays, which scientists can detect from Earth. The result is an aurora-like phenomenon that is visible in X-rays rather than visible light, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.
In the last month, researchers have seen some of the biggest solar storms of the current cycle, including a monster X-class flare — the most powerful for more than six years — and a plume of plasma 15 times taller than Earth, which erupted from the sun's south pole.
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