🔗 Share this article Why the Year 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Sun Mission A massive solar eruption is much bigger than Earth Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique. It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle. As per 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. It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer. Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily." Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit. Northern lights lit up the darkness across America in November Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed. "The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies. "But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites." Historical Solar Events The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety. The Sun's corona can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from Earth The Mission's Unique Advantage There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere. "The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert. In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses. Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth. Readiness for Peak Period In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now. This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes. Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each. Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one. The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels. "In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says. "The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.