A solar eruption has blown a massive hole in the sun’s atmosphere, causing temporary radio blackouts and possibly triggering a northern lights display tomorrow.

Scientists recorded an M5.7-class solar flare on May 10, which briefly disrupted high-frequency radio communications on the sunlit side of our planet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center. M-class solar flares are the second strongest category of solar eruption, after X-class flares.

Solar flares are sudden bursts of electromagnetic radiation ejected from the sun. This energy travels at the speed of light, so by the time scientists observe them, they’re already here. Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from the flares’ harmful radiation, but they can disrupt radio communications traveling through the upper atmosphere, as well as satellites and spacecraft, according to NASA.

The eruption also produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) — a slower-moving cloud of solar plasma and radiation — that can trigger geomagnetic storms and aurora displays. There’s no guarantee that the CME will hit Earth, but we could take a glancing blow, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

“Modeling of the resulting CME indicates that a bulk of the material should pass well behind Earth’s orbit,” a spokesperson for the Space Weather Prediction Center wrote in an update published Monday (May 11). “That being said, a glancing blow and or shock arrival by late on 12 May into the early portions of the 13th … can not be ruled out.”

A glancing blow could produce a minor G1 geomagnetic storm, according to the U.K.’s Met Office. The geomagnetic storm scale ranges from G1 to G5, with G5 being the most severe. However, G1 storms can still result in visible auroras in places like northern Michigan and Maine, weak power grid fluctuations and minor impacts on satellite operations and migratory animals, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Our sun has been very active in recent years after reaching solar maximum — the peak of the sun’s roughly 11-year activity cycle. The solar maximum likely ended sometime in early 2025, so solar activity is, in theory, declining. Solar flares of a 5.7 magnitude aren’t uncommon in and around a solar maximum, when there are more sunspots to unleash solar flares and CMEs.