The satellites confirmed that the storm was caused by a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection in which solar energy stretches the Earth’s magnetic field lines until they reach their limits and snap back into equilibrium. Like an earthquake in the sky, this releases enormous amounts of energy, and charged particles go flying into the atmosphere.
The NASA scientists, who published the work in Science today, hope that they can use the new information to better predict geomagnetic storms and protect human assets in space. The storms can knock out satellites, disrupting communication, and endanger astronauts.
Read all of the article and pictures, yes. But the comments? Not so much. 🙁
Creation points to the Creator and I see it best in patterns: moons circling planets like protons and electons circle the nucleus of a cell, for example. Earthquake in the sky? Awesome!
I struggled with the comments also-ed.