🔗 Share this article Why 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun Mission A coronal mass ejection is much bigger than Earth Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique. It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle. According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places. This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer. Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance. "During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day." Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit. Northern lights illuminated the darkness over the US last autumn Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit. "The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains. "However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Historical Solar Incidents The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for hours During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way. The Sun's corona can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from Earth Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona. "The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher. Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments. Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction. Readiness for Maximum Activity In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now. This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes. Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each. Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one. The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that. "In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states. "The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.