The Earth is closest to the Sun and a huge stream of plasma flies to the planet: what does it threaten

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A really unpleasant “gift” was prepared by the Sun for our planet to “mark” a unique event .

According to the forecast of scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as early as January 5, a huge stream of solar plasma will crash into the Earth's magnetic field, which will lead to the appearance of a not very strong geomagnetic storm, writes Live Science.

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As Focus already wroteOn January 4, our planet came closest to the Sun this year. The Earth on this day is at a distance of a little more than 147 million km from the Sun, and therefore our star seems too huge in the sky.

During its closest approach to the Sun, the Earth is at the perihelion point, which is different from the aphelion point , that is, the one where the Earth is farthest from the star, about 4.8 million km.

And it was on January 4 that the Sun apparently decided to celebrate this unique event with a powerful coronal mass ejection. This is a stream of plasma that escaped from a sunspot during another flare on the Sun. Scientists expect this shower of solar particles to reach Earth's magnetic field as early as January 5 or 6.

Collision with the Earth's magnetic field, which just protects our planet from too dangerous impact emissions from Sun, will lead to the appearance of a not very strong geomagnetic storm on the above days.

Such a storm can cause a short-term shutdown of communications on the planet, and can also lead to the failure of power systems. Another consequence of the solar plasma crashing into the Earth's magnetosphere will be the appearance of bright auroras far south of their normal appearance.

According to scientists, the approach of the Earth and the Sun and the appearance of a flare on a star with plasma ejection is an absolute accident and is not a natural event.

Coronal mass ejections that give rise to geomagnetic storms on Earth appear in special regions on the Sun called sunspots. When the magnetic field lines on the surface of the Sun become too tangled and suddenly break, a flare occurs, but it is not always accompanied, as in this case, by plasma ejections. If the sunspot is directed, as it is now, towards our planet, then the plasma stream, which flies through space at great speed, crashes into our magnetic field.

In recent months, there have been a lot of flares with coronal mass ejections on the Sun, and this happens for a reason. The fact is that the Sun has an 11-year cycle of its activity with periods of calm and maximum rise. The latter is called solar maximum, and our star is gradually approaching it. According to scientists, the peak of solar activity will come in July 2025, and before that, eruptions will increasingly occur on our star, which will cause geomagnetic storms of different power.

As for the perihelion, that is, the point of the closest location of the Earth to the Sun, the date of this event is constantly shifting. If this year the planet is closest to the Sun on January 4, then, for example, in 1246, the day of the winter solstice and the day of perihelion coincided and fell on December 21. And in the year 6430, the day of perihelion will coincide with the vernal equinox on March 20, according to scientists' forecasts.

Focus already wrote about the most significant manifestations of solar activity in 2022, including could be felt and even seen by the inhabitants of the Earth.