Solar storm ALERT! Unstable sunspot takes aim at the Earth; NOAA reveals incoming danger

When I play the Elder Scrolls games, I usually like to crouch walk around backstabbing guys like some kind of Aldi-brand Garrett from Thief, but I also always carve out space for Conjuration magic when things get hairy, summoning a Storm Atronach or some manner of stinky skeleton to fight for me. Work smarter, not harder! In its Halloween update, the magical mini-Morrowind Dread Delusion is now letting us do just that.

During Season 6 of Call of Duty: Warzone, players are in for tricks and treats during The Haunting.

Microsoft went all-out on Xbox advertising with its takeover of the Las Vegas Sphere last night.

On Monday, October 16, a powerful magnetic filament erupted on the Sun. In particular, the explosion of plasma took place on the active sunspot AR3467, which was earlier reported to have displayed signs of trapping a huge amount of delta energy. The eruption was so massive that it ejected solar matter and plasma into space, which is also known as coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME is now moving in the direction of Earth. While NASA models have assured that a direct hit is unlikely at this point, it is expected to sideswipe the planet, which is still enough to spark a solar storm. The storm is expected to arrive tomorrow, October 19.

This is the year of Cyberpunk 2077's about-face. Between the game's wide-ranging 2.0 update and its slick Phantom Liberty expansion pack, most onlookers now agree that the game is—if not the awe-inspiring masterwork it was hyped up to be prior to release—pretty good. But over at CD Projekt, the game's disastrous launch still looms large in devs' memories, and they're keen to avoid a repeat performance.

Cities: Skylines 2 is scheduled to launch on PC on October 24, but just over one week before the release developer Paradox Interactive has come forward to share that the state of the game might not be quite up to scratch. 

Asteroids are abundant in space and as many as 1298148 have been discovered to date. To track and study these space rocks which are mainly present in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, NASA has several advanced ground and space-based telescopes in place. NEOWISE telescope, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Pans-STARRS1 and Catalina Sky Survey are just some of the telescopes and observatories that help study asteroids and remove any uncertainties around their potentially close approaches to Earth.

Yesterday, it was reported that a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) was forming near the magnetosphere of the Earth due to the intermixing of slow and fast-moving solar winds. The situation is set to worsen today, October 13, as fresh solar winds escaping from a worm-like coronal hole will soon strike the Earth and trigger a powerful solar storm event. This event is expected to take place just before the annular solar eclipse occurs in the early hours of October 14.

The Earth this month has seen quite a few impacts due to the solar activities on the Sun, including a couple of solar flare eruptions and consequent radio blackouts, but so far we have not seen any solar storm events. But that is expected to change later today, October 12, as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast has revealed that our planet is likely to be hit by a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) that can spark a solar storm event. Know the likely impact of this solar storm, and why events like CIR occur.

If you've been curious about the recent surge in solar activity, it's important to understand that scientists have forecast the upcoming peak of the current solar cycle for mid-2025. This peak, referred to as the Solar Maximum, signifies the period when solar activity reaches its zenith within the 12-year cycle. This also explains the occurrence of two distinct solar flare events in the last 24 hours, both of which resulted in radio blackouts on Earth. And now, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has spotted a troublesome sunspot with a strong delta charge that can explode anytime and hurl an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) to spark intense solar storm activity.

Despite multiple close calls, we have been quite lucky when it comes to solar storms. Even as multiple solar flares have erupted over the last 10 days, only one released a coronal mass ejection (CME) that made its way to the Earth. However, things can now change with the latest eruption that took place in the sunspot region AR3452. The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory detected the eruption, and as per reports, it took place on the eastern limb of the Sun. If there was any CME directed towards the Sun, there would be another solar storm event in the next 48 hours.

The Sun's activity is expected to increase in the coming months as we approach the Solar Maximum, the period in the solar cycle where activity is at its peak. It is expected to arrive in 2024 or 2025, and the number of sunspots has already exceeded previous predictions. During this peak, the planet could face CMEs, solar flares, solar storms, and other particles with potentially disastrous consequences. In a new development, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which carries a full suite of instruments to observe the Sun, has recently revealed that Earth could be in the firing line of a sunspot and dangerous solar flares could be hurled out that could have the potential to wreak havoc.