US issues alert as huge hole in Sun likely to trigger geomagnetic storm on Earth

The US has issued an alert for geomagnetic storms after scientists from the country’s space agency NASA spotted a “coronal hole” in the Sun which is 20 times the size of Earth, , according to a report in Vice News.

The coronal hole was discovered by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on March 23 near the Sun’s South Pole. The “coronal hole” looks like a neat chunk the Sun has disappeared.

According to news.com.au, the gaping hole is unleashing solar winds of 2.9 million kmph which will hit Earth on Friday.

The continuous flow of charged particles form the Sun are known to impact the Earth’s magnetic field, satellites, mobile phones and GPS.

These holes allow solar wind (or geomagnetic storms) to escape more readily into space, which are ranked from G1 to G5 – with the latter being the most powerful.

The situation is being monitored to assess the impact these solar winds will have on our planet, said the outlet.

According to NASA, coronal holes appear as dark areas in the solar corona in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray solar images. They appear dark because they are cooler, less dense regions than the surrounding plasma and are regions of open, unipolar magnetic fields.