🔗 Share this article The Reason 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun Mission A coronal mass ejection is much bigger than Earth For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique. It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle. According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places. It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer. Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance. "During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily." Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit. The aurora borealis illuminated the darkness over the US in November Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit. "The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains. "But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites." Past Solar Incidents The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way. The solar atmosphere is only visible when the Moon blocks the Sun from Earth The Mission's Unique Advantage There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona. "Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert. Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses. Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth. Readiness for Peak Period In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest 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 – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less. At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively. Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event. The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that. "In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states. "The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.