🔗 Share this article The Reason the Year 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A massive solar eruption is several times larger than our planet Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique. It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle. As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions. 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 plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer. Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily." Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit. Northern lights lit up the night sky across America in November Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed. "The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains. "However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Past Solar Incidents The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way. The solar atmosphere is only visible during a total solar eclipse from Earth The Mission's Unique Advantage While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona. "The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert. In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments. Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction. Readiness for Maximum Activity To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now. This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes. At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each. Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one. The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that. "In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states. "The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.