Earth is not the only planet that has to go through solar eruptions. Other planets from our Solar System have to face the wrath of our star as well, and one of them is Venus. Our neighboring planet is already scorching hot, however, as it can reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface.
Space.com reveals that the weather this week is even worse on Earth’s so-called “sister planet,” as a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Venus after being ejected from a sunspot. What’s perhaps even more surprising is that the event represents the second time Venus has been hit by a CME in a week. NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft is responsible for spotting the last CME.
The sunspot region known as AR3088 is believed to be the source of the solar eruption. It is thought to have grown significantly and gradually larger over time.
George Ho from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory explained for SpaceWeather.com:
I can safely say the Sept. 5th event is one of the largest (if not THE largest) Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) storms that we have seen so far since Solar Orbiter launched in 2020,
It is at least an order of magnitude stronger than the radiation storm from last week’s CME.
If a CME reaches Earth, it can lead to damage to electrical power grids, geomagnetic storms, and aurorae. Luckily enough for us, most of such solar eruptions are harmless.
A CME can be referred to as an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) if it accesses interplanetary space.
It may be surprising for some to find out that our Sun is only considered an average-sized star. There are many other discovered stars that are much larger than the Sun. For instance, UY Scuti, the largest star known in the Universe, is about 1,700 times bigger than the star that powers our Solar System.
