A spectacle which precedes another with the passage of the “comet of the century” this Friday.
In this month of October, the sun is carrying out coronal mass ejections (CME) of incredible power. Result, if these plasma eruptions on the surface of the Sun are directed towards the Earth, they will cause on our planet solar storms. And this month of October is proving particularly productive in this regard since several class X solar storms (the most powerful in the category) are linked together.
Also read:
“A historic event”: one of the largest solar storms ever recorded will hit the Earth, scientists sound the alert
On October 3, a class X9.0 storm was “flashed”, one of the 15 most powerful storms ever recorded. This Tuesday, October 8, 2024, the recorded eruption was classified as X1.8. A solar storm which began to affect the Earth this Wednesday, October 9 in the morning. Storm conditions classified as “minor” to “moderate” at first, which are expected to continue until October 10-11.
“The comet of the century”
Except that the estimates have been revised upwards. And the storm, accompanied by a proton storm, turns out to be particularly intense (G4, the 4th level of geomagnetic storms).
For the Catalan astronomer Joan Anton Català, the conditions strangely resemble those of last May when northern lights could have been seen in France and in Spain. “What happened in May is historic and almost unprecedented, but we hope it happens again”he says in a video published on X. “This does not mean that we will necessarily see the Northern Lights, but the conditions are ideal to be able to observe them in Catalonia”.
Attention to the “little things” in the sky this weekend that could become shows:
comet (most likely will be!) and auroras (with a bit of luck).
How to enjoy it?
What should we expect?
Where and when to look?#miremelcel pic.twitter.com/342abgqPo1— Joan Anton Català Friend (@estelsiplanetes)
The Northern Lights alert starts at 8 p.m. this Thursday evening and lasts until Friday morning. The phenomenon can be observed near the North Pole but also at much less common latitudes, in France and Spain, according to the scientific popularizer. To have a chance of observing them, he advises moving away from the light and pollution of cities and scanning the sky towards the North.
The start of a dream weekend that the sky offers us, since “the comet of the century” should be visible this Friday evening, in the west, above the horizon.
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