NASA'S SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY

IS A 'CANNIBAL CME' COMING? One CME left the sun on July 14th, followed by a second faster CME on July 15th. According to a NOAA model, the second CME will sweep up the first, forming a 'cannibal CME' that hits Earth on July 18th. The impact could spark G1 to G2-class geomagnetic storms. 

One of the most visually dramatic eruptions of Solar Cycle 25 occured on July 14th, when a spray of dark plasma flew away from the sun's southern hemisphere. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the event:

The explosion started in the magnetic canopy of AR3370, a small and previously unremarkable sunspot. X-ray sensors on Earth-orbiting satellites registered a C8.8-class solar flare at 1844 UT just before the dark ejecta appeared. What made it "dark"? It's not made of dark matter. Instead, plasma hurled away from the sunspot was relatively cool and dense, so it silhouetted the glow of the underlying sun.