How a huge fleet of 17 spacecraft discovered something surprising about solar eruptions
Taking measurements of the same CME from different vantage points in the solar system revealed the true extent of a solar eruption.
A massive fleet of 17 spacecraft recently discovered an unusual feature of a solar eruption called a coronal mass ejection (CME). Previous records held that 10 spacecraft could track and characterize a single CME, with most of them in a straight line from the sun to Earth and beyond. This new record-breaking observation, however, revealed the CME to be remarkably lopsided, with two asymmetric lobes moving at different speeds.
One lobe was heading for Earth and Mars, while the other was traveling westward towards STEREO-A. The asymmetric structure was not detected by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which only saw the slower lobe. This discovery is crucial for understanding and forecasting CMEs, particularly for future human exploration, as fast CMEs can create shocks that accelerate high-energy particles, posing a radiation hazard to astronauts outside Earth's protective magnetic field.
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