🔗 Share this article The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A coronal mass ejection is much bigger than our planet Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other. It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle. As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places. It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona. Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily." Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space. The aurora borealis illuminated the night sky across America last autumn Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit. "The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains. "However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites." Past Solar Incidents The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way. The Sun's corona can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from our perspective Aditya-L1's Special Capability While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere. "The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher. In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses. Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth. Readiness for Peak Period To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now. This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less. At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each. Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event. The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels. "I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states. "The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.