We’re Not Alone in Space Weather Chaos

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TThe strong bursts of sunlight that have erupted since Sunday have been felt here on Earth. Our star released three large blobs of plasma and magnetic field, which look like large pieces of twisted rope, called coronal mass ejections. The sun spits out these CMEs at over a million miles per hour, and they usually follow solar flares, that is, eruptions of solar radiation.

Yesterday, scientists observed the strongest solar flare so far this year, which was near the top of the scale with a rating of X5.1.

So far, as of this writing, two of three recent CMEs traveled to Earth on the night of November 11 and painted stunning auroras as far away as southern Florida and Mexico, in the midst of a severe geomagnetic storm. Today, the third and most intense CME is expected to arrive here during the day and trigger another severe storm, perhaps even one category higher than yesterday.

All this recent hubbub has emerged from an active sunspot called AR4274 that is currently facing Earth. Once these bursts of energy reach Earth, they can interfere with critical communications systems. Yesterday, this unruly space weather caused radio blackouts across Europe and Africa. This is because solar energy hits our planet’s magnetosphere and sends radiation particles along its magnetic field lines. These particles strike atoms in Earth’s upper atmosphere, triggering geomagnetic storms that cause magnificent northern lights, but also disrupt GPS signals, satellite electronics, radio communications and our power grids.

You may have noticed a lot of solar action over the past few years. This is because we are in a particularly active phase of the current solar cycle. About every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic poles reverse at the height of its activity, when our star’s magnetic fields tend to be the most chaotic. This may produce more CMEs that could impact us here on Earth. The current peak of the solar cycle may have passed last year – or we’re currently right in the thick of it, astronomers say.

Read more: »The sneaky force behind our Sun’s violent explosions»

CMEs are not limited to our sun, however. For the first time, scientists recently detected strong evidence of a coronal mass ejection from another star: Astronomers noticed a brief but intense radio signal coming from a red dwarf star located about 40 light-years from Earth. This star is very different from our sun: it is much colder and smaller and has a magnetic field 300 times stronger. The CME appeared to speed through space at nearly 1,500 miles per second, far faster than most observed CMEs bursting from our life-giving star.

Scientists think space storms could be even more intense around other small stars like this red dwarf, putting our recent solar outages into perspective.

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Main image: Space Weather Prediction Center / NOAA

• Molly Glick

  Published on November 12, 2025

  Molly Glick is the newsletter editor of Nautilus.