Sun erupts with mightiest solar flare in 4 years - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - msnbc.com

Sun erupts with mightiest solar flare in 4 years - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - msnbc.com: "The sun unleashed its strongest solar flare in four years Monday night, hurling a massive wave of charged particles from electrified gas into space and toward Earth.

The solar storm sent a flash of radiation that hit Earth in a matter of minutes. Now a huge cloud of charged particles is headed our way. These coronal mass ejections, as they are called, typically take about 24 hours or more to arrive. They can spark spectacular displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, at high latitudes and sometimes even into the northern United States."