On Thursday , a crack unfold in Earth ’s magnetised study and stay open for nearly 14 hours , allowing Vecna and his minion through from the Upside Down . OK , perhaps not that last scrap , but it did allow some powerful solar wind to swarm through the hole , creating a geomagnetic storm that trigger off some somewhat epic aurora .
The crack in the magnet field was make by a rarefied phenomenon call a co - rotating fundamental interaction region ( CIR ) from the Sun . CIRs are gravid - scale plasma structures generated in the low and mid - latitude regions of the heliosphere – the region surrounding the Sun that include the solar magnetic field and the solar wind – when fast and slow - moving watercourse of solar wind interact .
Likecoronal mass ejections(CMEs ) , CIRs get cast away out from the Sun towards Earth and can contain shockwaves and compressed magnetic fields that cause tempestuous space weather , which normally present itself to us as pretty aurorae .
This one hit Earth ’s magnetic field in the early hour of July 7 and caused a long - lasting G1 - class geomagnetic storm . National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) analyst mistrust a CME was embedded in the solar wind out front of the CIR , Spaceweather.comreports .
Do n’t worry , cracks in Earth ’s charismatic field of operations are normal . The magnetic battleground acts as a shield to protect us from solar storms spit out by the Sun . It was thought they opened and closed relatively quickly but now we know they can stay open for hours .
" We ’ve discovered that our magnetized shield is drafty , like a house with a window stuck open during a storm,“saidHarald Frey , head source of a report on this breakthrough back in 2003 .
" The house deflects most of the storm , but the lounge is ruin . Similarly , our magnetic shield pack the brunt of space storm , but some energy luxate through its cracks , sometimes enough to cause problems with satellite , radio communication , and tycoon systems . "
There does n’t seem to have been any radio blackouts or power outage this metre but we have been treated to some gorgeous northern lighting across Canada and the US .
The Sun is gearing up towards its most active full point in the solar cycle ( July 2025 ) and is alreadyunusually active quite early on . Your hazard of descry aurora are already middling good right now but they ’re just going to get better and well over the next three years .
