Coronal Mass Ejection

Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is a cloud of magnetized solar material that erupts from the sun's atmosphere, the corona, into interplanetary space. CMEs are sometimes confused with Solar flares. However, both events actually occur at the same time, and scientists currently study how the two phenomena connect. At their largest, CMEs can contain 10 billion tons of matter, and they can move at speeds of a million miles an hour. Just after blowing into space, a CME cloud can grow as wide as 30 million miles across, 35 times the diameter of the sun. When a coronal mass ejection points toward Earth, it can take anywhere from one to three days to reach our atmosphere, where it can create a type of space weather known as a geomagnetic storm.