Auroras in southern Canada a possibility after 'intense' solar flare: astronomers
CTV
After a massive solar flare emerged from the sun on Thursday, astronomers say auroras could dazzle the skies as far south as Toronto during the Halloween weekend.
Thursday's solar flare was accompanied by a large eruption of plasma, which astronomers call a "coronal mass ejection," aimed in our planet's direction.
"(A coronal mass ejection) is basically a lot of particulate radiation being forced away from the sun at a couple of thousand kilometers a second. There's this huge wave of particulate radiation, protons and electrons primarily, heading towards Earth," York University astronomer Paul Delaney told CTVNews.ca over the phone on Friday.
NASA says the flare peaked at 11:35 a.m. EDT on Thursday and categorized it as an "X1" flare. This flare is at the lowest end of the X-class flares, the class of flares that are the most intense.
Delaney says it takes around 48 hours for the coronal mass ejection to reach Earth. By the time these particles reach our planet, most of them get deflected by the Earth's magnetic field. However, some of these particles can get caught within the poles.
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