Next Friday, major aurora borealis will be visible even in Earth’s southern latitudes. The Earth will be covered by a cloud of solar plasma shooting towards our planet late on the night of October 2. The emission was accompanied by an index of X7.1, one of the strongest outbursts in the current cycle of solar activity. A more powerful explosion occurred on May 14, but was not accompanied by plasma emission. The new event promises to lead to a colorful celestial show.

The current 11-year cycle of solar activity (the 25th in a row) promises to surprise with many extraordinary events in the star. It is not for nothing that a fleet of several solar observatories is aimed at the Sun. Never has our Earth looked so closely at its star as in a new cycle near the peak of its activity. The maximum peak may begin in the coming months, although it was previously estimated for the first half of 2025. A number of scientific studies published earlier this year are frankly disturbing. Scientists fear that the Sun may surprise us unpleasantly.

The peak of X7.1’s record-intensity flash fell at 01:20 Kiev time on October 2. This is an extreme class flare on a 10-point scale, but Class X has no upper limit. There was definitely a strong X14 level flare on the Sun on July 23, 2024, but it was on the far side of the Sun and moved away from Earth. Therefore, the “charm” of that event remained inaccessible to an earthly observer. Now, the flare in the X-ray range covered the side of the planet facing the star, briefly disabling even shortwave communications in the Western Hemisphere, the Pacific Ocean, Australia, and part of the Asia-Pacific region.

But the real show is expected to take place on Friday, October 4, when the coronal solar mass ejection will reach Earth. In addition to the bright aurora borealis, the possibility of power distribution system failures still exists. Since this is not the first such situation, energy experts are in principle ready to confront such phenomena. Another thing is that we have not yet encountered truly powerful explosions on the Sun, and as scientists have discovered, they are a fairly frequent phenomenon in the history of the Earth.