Sun Spitting Solar Particles - to Reach earth

The Sun erupted with one of the biggest prominences in years. This shot from the SOHO spacecraft on April 13, 2010 at 13:13 UT shows a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun’s northeastern limb. The massive plasma-filled structure rose up and burst during a ~2 hour period around 0900 UT.

A typical coronal mass ejection can release 100 billion kilograms of solar material, and the speed of this material can approach 1000 km/second. In fact, solar flares and coronal mass ejections are the biggest explosions in the Solar System, approaching the power of one billion hydrogen bombs.