00:00Okay, let's just say you're driving home and suddenly your GPS freezes.
00:06Your phone says you've got full bars, but it takes forever to make a call.
00:11Or maybe the call drops for no reason and you have to redial.
00:15You brush it off.
00:16Probably just your carrier being weird.
00:19But then, later, during a house party, your light flickers for a second.
00:24No need to panic, you're not haunted by a ghost.
00:27At least I hope not.
00:29No, it's much more likely that the sun is acting up.
00:33Because a giant hole about a half a million miles wide opened in its atmosphere
00:38and now it's sending strange stuff straight at us on Earth.
00:43Okay, so what does that even mean, a hole in the sun?
00:47Well, when we look at the sun, with highly protective sunglasses, of course,
00:52all we can see is a bright, calm star.
00:55But that couldn't be further from the truth.
00:57Up close, it's total chaos.
01:00Its surface boils with magnetic storms.
01:03Loops of plasma twist and snap.
01:05And every now and then, the outer layer, called the corona, becomes unpredictable.
01:11That's what happened recently when a massive region of the sun's atmosphere suddenly changed shape.
01:16So scientists call it a coronal hole.
01:20But don't picture a crack or a crater.
01:23It's more like an open vent in the sun's outer layer.
01:26Our star has these invisible forces running through it, like tension lines beneath the surface.
01:31Most of the time, they loop back on themselves.
01:35But sometimes, in certain spots, they stretch outward into space like open lanes.
01:41And that's when stuff starts flying.
01:43Particles shoot out at crazy speeds in what we call the solar wind.
01:48This wind hurls through space at about 1 million miles per hour,
01:52which is fast enough to reach Earth in a few days.
01:55The area of the sun where the wind comes from looks darker and cooler than the rest of it.
02:01That's why we call it a coronal hole.
02:03And the current one is huge.
02:06So big that you could fit about 62 Earths side by side.
02:10It stretches across a massive chunk of the sun's southern hemisphere
02:13and is pointed straight at our planet.
02:16So what exactly is the sun sending our way?
02:19And what happens when it gets here?
02:21Well, solar wind isn't just fast.
02:24It's also packed with tiny charged particles the sun hurls out when it's feeling active.
02:29And when that stream runs into Earth's magnetic field,
02:32it's like tossing a rock into a still pond.
02:35It presses against our planet's magnetic shield,
02:38distorting it like a balloon being poked from the outside.
02:42That's what creates these breathtaking auroras.
02:45However, sometimes, the sun takes it even further.
02:49Instead of a steady stream, it blasts out a massive cloud of solar material all at once.
02:55That's called a coronal mass ejection, or CME.
02:59This can mess with GPS and jam signals.
03:02It's partly because of something called the ionosphere,
03:05a charged layer way up in Earth's atmosphere that helps radio signals travel.
03:10When that layer gets disturbed, signals start bouncing weirdly or dropping out completely.
03:16In late May 2025, Earth was hit by a geomagnetic storm.
03:22It was classified as a G3, which means strong.
03:26It came from a stream of high-speed solar wind released by a coronal hole
03:30and caused visible auroras as far south as Iowa and Oregon.
03:36Warnings issued pointed to GPS and shortwave radio disruptions during the storm,
03:40but no serious issues were reported.
03:44Just a few days later, the situation got worse.
03:47On June 1st and 2nd, another storm happened.
03:50This time, it was a G4 class.
03:53That one is considered a severe-level event,
03:55just one step below the highest category.
03:58The skies lit up.
04:00People across the northern U.S., and even as far south as California and New Mexico,
04:06saw glowing curtains of green and pink across the night sky.
04:09It's the kind of thing you normally have to travel to the Arctic or Antarctic Circle to see.
04:15Okay, fine, I'm convinced.
04:17Ghosts don't do this stuff.
04:19But it wasn't just a light show,
04:21although even astronauts aboard the International Space Station
04:24were able to capture breathtaking pictures.
04:28Airlines received radiation warnings
04:30and may have altered some flight paths as a precaution.
04:33Satellite operators were monitoring for signal drift,
04:37and high-frequency radio used by ships, planes, and amateur operators
04:41could have experienced brief disruptions.
04:44But then came another one.
04:47A few weeks later, in mid-June,
04:49Earth was hit by a G2-class geomagnetic storm.
04:53It wasn't as intense as the earlier G4 event,
04:56which meant less risk for disruptions
04:58and another chance to catch glowing skies on camera.
05:02Then, just to keep things interesting,
05:05the Sun followed it up with a pair of powerful solar flares
05:08on June 17th and 19th.
05:11Solar flares are distinct kinds of outbursts,
05:13but with similar consequences.
05:15The Sun's surface is constantly moving,
05:18dragging magnetic fields around like tangled cords.
05:21Eventually, those lines get twisted so tightly that they snap,
05:26and that snap is what causes a solar flare.
05:29If a CME is the Sun launching materials,
05:33a solar flare is more like the Sun flipping a light switch,
05:36except the light is radiation,
05:38which floods space at the speed of, well, light.
05:42Flares hit fast, sometimes within minutes,
05:45and they don't need to carry particles to cause problems.
05:47So, while CMEs are like massive clouds of solar blasts
05:52that take a day or two to arrive,
05:54solar flares are the flash that hits you
05:56before you even see it coming.
05:58And in mid-June, Earth got hit with two of them,
06:01one after another.
06:04The second one was the stronger one
06:06and briefly knocked out radio communications
06:08across parts of the US.
06:11Why is all this happening?
06:13It's not random.
06:15The Sun follows a pattern.
06:16It goes through phases, kind of like moods.
06:19Yeah, solar moods.
06:21Every 11 years or so, it gets a little dramatic.
06:24More flares, more sunspots, more weirdness.
06:28Scientists call this peak period the solar maximum,
06:31and we are currently in the middle of one.
06:34Right now, we're in solar cycle 25,
06:37which is expected to peak sometime between now and early 2026.
06:42During this time, the Sun's getting active.
06:44It seems like things are just starting to heat up,
06:47and we can expect even wilder storms in the coming months.
06:51But if that's the case, should we be worried?
06:55Well, not really.
06:56At least, not in a run-for-the-bunkers kind of way.
07:00Solar storms don't hurt people directly.
07:03You're not going to get sunburned through your roof
07:05or microwaved in your sleep.
07:07Unless they announce a beautiful aurora,
07:10you won't even know it happened.
07:11The bigger concern is for the systems
07:14quietly running in the background.
07:16Satellites, navigation networks, and electricity.
07:20When the magnetic field gets disturbed,
07:23it can cause electric currents to form on the ground.
07:26And those currents don't just stay underground.
07:29They can sneak into power lines.
07:30If those currents get strong enough,
07:33they can overload transformers,
07:35damage electrical systems,
07:37and even knock out entire power grids.
07:40That's what happened in Quebec in 1989,
07:43when a solar storm blacked out the whole province in 90 seconds.
07:48So that's why agencies like NASA and NOAA
07:50track solar activity constantly.
07:53They know when something's headed our way,
07:55how strong it might be,
07:57and what kind of warnings to send out.
07:58Now, we usually don't think about the sun,
08:02unless it's too hot or messing with our beach plans, huh?
08:05Or when it's freezing and we're stuck indoors,
08:08dreaming of summer.
08:10But occasionally, it reminds us that it's still a wild thing.
08:15A fascinating ball of chaos.
08:18It flares.
08:19It erupts.
08:20It throws giant waves of charged particles across space
08:24just to see what happens.
08:26And even from 93 million miles away,
08:29we feel it.
08:30A dropped signal.
08:32A beautiful glowing sky.
08:34A power flicker.
08:35Little hints that we're not as disconnected from space
08:38as we'd like to believe.
08:40So, the next time your GPS acts weird,
08:43or your screen glitches for no reason,
08:46don't blame your phone.
08:47Or Casper.
08:49It just might be the sun feeling moody again.
08:54That's it for today.
08:55So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
08:58then give the video a like
08:59and share it with your friends.
09:00Or if you want more,
09:01just click on these videos
09:02and stay on the bright side.
