Or, "look out, it's heading right for us!"
We knew there had to be a reason for our not-so-fresh feeling today: The most powerful geomagnetic storm possible hit Earth early Wednesday, threatening power outages, disrupting airlines communications and damaging some satellites. And here I was blaming the curry I ate last night at River Gods. Chef Park, an apology!
I was fortunate enough to work on a museum exhibit about black holes with the good people at the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory a while back [what? you thought those descriptive placards on the museum walls edited themselves?], and this is just the sort of news that gets astronomers all het up. You should really take a look at this action footage, and not merely because it's entitled "Hot Shots from SOHO," a headline Jared Paul Stern would be proud of. For "a tremendous burst of x-ray light at a wavelength of 195 Angstroms," it's strangely soothing to watch.
A positive note: Strong geomagnetic storms can produce colorful auroras in the night sky visible as far south as Texas and Florida, beginning late Wednesday. Enjoy the Sun's home movies, people.
