June 15, 2012 - On June 14th, for the second day in a row, sunspot AR1504 erupted and hurled a CME toward Earth. The quickly-moving (1360 km/s) cloud is expected to sweep up a preceding CME and deliver a combined blow to Earth’s magnetic field on June 16th around 10:16 UT. This animation shows the probably progression of the approaching storm: According to the forecast track ready by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CMEs will also hit Venus on June 15th and Mars on June 19th. Due to the fact Venus and Mars do not have global magnetic fields to defend them, both of those planets will probably shed tiny amounts of atmosphere when the CMEs strike. Right here on Earth, the influence is likely to trigger a geomagnetic storm around the poles. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on June 16th. Source: The Coming Crisis, Image: flickr.com
