Billions of tons of plasma are set to hit Earth TODAY after explosion of superheated gas on the sun – and there’s a one in 10 chance it could cause blackouts on Earth

A massive explosion on the sun’s surface this week released billions of tons of plasma that are set to hit Earth today.

The eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), shot out from the southwest region of the sun, sending plasma shooting toward our planet with the help of intense solar winds.

Prediction reports suggest there is a 50 percent chance the particles will disrupt satellites in Earth’s orbit and a 10 percent risk of blackouts.

The stream contains intense radiation that can interrupt technologies on Earth. 

The solar winds are also expected to shock our planet’s magnetosphere, causing a G1 geomagnetic storm that can disrupt satellites orbiting in the region of space.

CMEs can eject billions of tons of corona material from the sun’s surface. The material consists of plasma and magnetic fields.

Such eruptions have the potential to trigger space weather that can interfere with satellites and power grids on Earth and can be harmful to unprotected astronauts.

It was captured by the European Space Agency’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, which analyzes our sun.

And it is just by fate that the CMEs particles are hitting Earth, as the stream was released from a coronal hole facing our planet. 

Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Earth’s magnetic field will be disrupted around 6pm ET tonight and could last until Friday.

Earth’s magnetic field has been ‘unsettled’ as of Thursday and will continue over the next 24 hours as high-speed solar winds flow from the coronal hole, EarthSky reports.

Three coronal holes on the sun’s surface face our planet and seven sunspots have also been identified.

Sunspots are dark regions of the Sun where it is cooler than other parts of the surface. Solar flares originate close to these dark areas of the star.

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections come from these regions. 

When they explode in the direction of Earth, they can result in geomagnetic storms that produce beautiful auroras and pose a danger to power grids and satellites.

SpaceWeather experts predict that over the next 24 hours, there is a 50 percent chance for C flares, a 10 percent chance for M flares and one percent for X flares

This eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), pierced the sun’s southwest quadrant near a coronal hole, a cooler region on the surface

The sun Thursday also released a ‘cannibal’ CME on the northeastern side of the solar disk facing away from Earth

The sun Thursday also released a ‘cannibal’ CME on the northeastern side of the solar disk facing away from Earth.

‘This particular cannibal CME will not affect our planet. It is heading away from us,’ SpaceWeather.com reports. 

The sun is an amazing cosmic ball of gas that still surprises astronomers with its baffling behavior.

One of these incidents was observed in February when a piece of the sun’s northern pole broke off.

A video shows a giant filament of plasma, or electrified gas, shooting out from the sun, separating and then circulating in a ‘massive polar vortex.’

While astronomers are baffled, they speculate the prominence has something to do with the reversal of the sun’s magnetic field that happens once every solar cycle.

NASA describes solar filaments as clouds of charged particles that float above the sun, tethered to it by magnetic forces.

These appear as elongated, uneven strands that shoot out from the sun’s surface.

Solar physicist Scott McIntosh, the deputy director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, told Space.com: ‘Once every solar cycle, it forms at the 55-degree latitude and it starts to march up to the solar poles.

‘It’s very curious. There is a big ‘why’ question around it. Why does it only move toward the pole one time and then disappears and then comes back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region?’

While astronomers have previously observed filaments breaking away from the sun, this is the first time one has circulated the region in a whirlwind.