The sun is a mass of incandescent gas and sometimes, just sometimes, it sends a big ol' glob of those fun times hurtling out into space propelled by solar wind.
When these coronal mass ejections are pointed Earthward, they do neat junk like freaking out radios, the entire power grid of Quebec, and the Earth's magnetic field in general. The Carrington Event, a super-major CME in 1859, was especially exciting, causing aurorae borealis as far south as Rome. Certain telegraph operators at the time — possibly crazed on patent medicines — also claimed that they could operate their telegraphs without an external power source due to the current running through the lines. A coronal mass ejection of this majesty happens, on average, every 500 years or so. Ready?
Notes: Pink grapefruit, Tunguska pine, two ambers and the distilled fear of everyone working in telecommunications...by which we mean tolu balsam.
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