🔗 Share this article The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A coronal mass ejection can be several times larger than our planet For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other. It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle. According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions. This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer. Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily." Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit. Northern lights lit up the night sky across America in November Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit. "The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies. "But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Past Solar Incidents The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety. The Sun's corona can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from our perspective Aditya-L1's Special Capability While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona. "The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert. In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments. Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth. Preparation for Peak Period In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently. This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes. At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each. Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event. The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that. "I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states. "The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.