A solar storm is due to hit earth, with the potential to cause disruptions to radio and satellite communications. 

The “major” storm will see a temporary disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere, caused by a solar wind shock wave interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.

It comes after a “sun burp” on Friday, a huge burst of stellar material and magnetic fields from the surface of the sun.

Swinburne University Astrophysicist Sara Webb says while the storm will be a direct hit with Earth, there’s no cause for alarm.

“It can inherently sound scary and terrifying but there’s … nothing to worry about just yet,” she said.

“It’s just something that our sun does but it gets tricky when we have technology up above the Earth.”

A major solar storm will hit Earth today and may cause disruptions to radio communications and GPS according to ⁦@NASA⁩. And let’s hope for a little Aurora in the Northern latitudes. May be visible in Northern US states. pic.twitter.com/IXPdRLd3CW

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) July 19, 2022

Sun burps aren’t all bad news, particularly for avid star-gazers.

Energy and small particles brought towards Earth in solar storms can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles and into our atmosphere.

There, they can interact with gases and create auroras!

Image: NASA