On Jan. 22, the Sun ejected a mass of energetic, fast-moving particles into space.

Two days later, shortly after 10 p.m., this mass of energy, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), smacked into earth's atmosphere. Thankfully, humans were left with large displays of vivid colors and lights in the form of auroras rather than power outages and communication failures.

Events like this are dubbed space weather--the phenomena of changing conditions in space from the Sun to earth. Though it is like weather on earth in the way it often fluctuates, science is far less capable of predicting space weather and its effect.  

"From its launch to making contact with earth, it took 36 hours," said Bronson Messer, computational astrophysicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, explaining that the flow of solar energy came at earth more than one and a half times faster than typical. That said, Messer believes that the storm must have just nicked the earth on the way past, as auroras were brilliant but did not extend to lower latitudes.

Coronal mass ejections typically coincide with solar flares, or massive eruptions of energy from the Sun that create "limbs" of extremely hot plasma. The plasma particles are bursting with electromagnetic energy that only slowly dissipates as it travels farther into the solar system.

"We have become more aware of this as we depend more on satellite communication and we prepare better." -Bronson Messer, ORNL astrophysicist

Like terrestrial weather, space weather is capable of destroying communication equipment and other property. The excited electrons, protons, and ions create radiation that has the capability of harming anything the energetic cloud may run across-including astronauts and people flying at high altitudes, particularly near earth's poles.

"In general, the risks are substantial," Messer said. "We have become more aware of this as we depend more on satellite communication and we prepare better." Airplanes that typically fly near the poles have been rerouted, and the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) has staff at the Space Weather Prediction Center watching the cloud around the clock.

After observing initial contact with earth's atmosphere, NOAA scientists at the Space Weather Prediction Center ranked this CME a category S3 storm on a scale of 1-5.

The Sun has cycles of roughly 11 years in which its magnetic activity increases or decreases, heavily influencing the severity and regularity of CMEs. This cycle is due to hit "solar maximum" in May, 2013. Though this early outburst may concern some for what next year holds, Messer does not think it necessarily means we are in for particularly bad space weather next year. It does, however, point to a fact that is often lost.

"The sun is a gravitationally confined fusion reactor that holds 99.8 percent of mass in the solar system," Messer said. "That is a formidable object that should be respected accordingly."