A Blast From the Sun is Headed Our Way

This animation of the sun spitting out a coronal mass ejection on March 15, 2013 is based on images captured by the Solar Heliospheric Observatory. In the images, a disk was placed over the sun to better see the dimmer atmosphere around it, called the corona. (SOURCE: ESA and NASA/SOHO. And a hat tip to Earthsky.org for finding it!) Updated below, with a new image. Billions of tons of solar particles are racing through space and headed for Earth. Known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME, the particles erupted from the surface of the sun on Friday. As I write this on Saturday night, the Space Weather Prediction Center is saying that they will reach Earth imminently. That means if you're reading this between Saturday night and early Sunday morning, and you're in the northernmost tier of states (including as far south as New York or Idaho), or in Canada for that matter, you may be treated to a display of Northern Lights, clear skies permitting.