🔗 Share this article The Reason 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A massive solar eruption can be several times larger than Earth For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique. It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle. According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions. This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona. Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day." Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit. Northern lights lit up the night sky over the US last autumn Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit. "The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies. "However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Past Solar Events The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way. The Sun's corona is only visible when the Moon blocks the Sun from Earth Aditya-L1's Special Capability There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere. "The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert. In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses. Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth. Preparation for Maximum Activity In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now. It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes. Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively. Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one. 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 even more than that. "In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says. "The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.