🔗 Share this article The Reason the Year 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission A coronal mass ejection can be much bigger than Earth Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other. It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle. As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places. This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona. Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun. "In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily." Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in orbit. The aurora borealis lit up the darkness across America last autumn Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit. "The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains. "However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites." Historical Solar Incidents The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for hours In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety. The Sun's corona is only visible when the Moon blocks the Sun from our perspective Aditya-L1's Special Capability While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona. "Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher. Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses. Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction. Preparation for Maximum Activity In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now. This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less. Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each. Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event. The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels. "I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states. "The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.