🔗 Share this article The Reason the Year 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission A massive solar eruption can be much bigger than our planet For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other. It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle. According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places. It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona. Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily." Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit. The aurora borealis illuminated the night sky over the US last autumn Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed. "The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies. "However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites." Historical Solar Incidents The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way. The Sun's corona can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from our perspective Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage 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 effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert. Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments. Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction. Preparation for Peak Period To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now. It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less. Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively. Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event. The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels. "In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says. "The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.