Earth In Crosshairs of Solar Storm

NBC NEWS:  Sun fires solar storm directly toward Earth -- at 2 million mph

The sun unleashed a powerful storm early Tuesday morning, sending an enormous cloud of superheated particles rocketing toward Earth.
The solar eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), occurred at 4:24 a.m. EDT Tuesday and blasted billions of tons of solar particles toward Earth at a mind-boggling speed of 2 million mph (3.3 million km/h).

"Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 570 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs," NASA officials wrote in an update Tuesday. NASA's twin Stereo spacecraft and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, captured photos of the solar storm from space.

The particles ejected by Earth-directed CMEs typically take two or three days to reach our planet, at which point they can trigger geomagnetic storms that can disrupt radio communications, GPS signals and power grids.

Editor's note:  Quakes, volcanic activity and severe weather threats increase for 7 - 10 days after impact.

Learn more about the impact of solar storms upon the earth.