2012 - Fastest Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) On Record

On July 23, 2012, a massive cloud of solar material erupted off the sun's right side, zooming out into space, passing one of NASA's Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft along the way. Using the STEREO data, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. clocked this giant cloud, known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME, as traveling between 1,800 and 2,200 miles per second as it left the sun.

Conversations began to buzz and the emails to fly: this was the fastest CME ever observed by STEREO, which since its launch in 2006 has helped make CME speed measurements much more precise. 

Such an unusually strong bout of space weather gives scientists an opportunity to observe how these events affect the space around the sun, as well as to improve their understanding of what causes them. 

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st... 

Fierce solar magnetic storm barely missed Earth in 2012 

https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/... 

Clips used in this video are in public domain. Credit: NASA/SDO/STEREO/ESA/SOHO/Wiessinger & NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center