🔗 Share this article The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A coronal mass ejection can be much bigger than our planet Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique. This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle. According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places. This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona. Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day." Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space. The aurora borealis lit up the darkness over the US in November Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit. "The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies. "However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Past Solar Incidents The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way. The solar atmosphere can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from Earth The Mission's Special Capability While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona. "The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert. In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments. Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction. Preparation for Maximum Activity In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now. It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less. Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each. Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event. The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that. "In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states. "The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.