Artist's Concept of Coronal Mass Ejection Cannibalism (1 of 2) (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Artist's Concept of Coronal Mass Ejection Cannibalism (1 of 2)

Caption

This still is from a sequence of images is from a computer animation illustrating an artist's concept of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) cannibalism. Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are clouds of electrified, magnetic gas weighing billions of tons ejected from the sun and hurled into space with speeds ranging from 12 to 1,250 miles per second (about 20 to 2,000 kilometers per second). Solar researchers believe cannibal CMEs may be the source of 'complex ejecta' CME clouds; those with a larger and more complex structure than typical CMEs. These traits cause complex ejecta CMEs to trigger protracted magnetic storms when they envelop Earth. NASA's iSWA system is designed to collect and store data about space-weather activity like CMEs.

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NASA

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