Question: what will happen if an explosion hits the earth

Emma Davies answered on 19 Jun 2019:

It depends how big the explosion (CME) is! In general, because the explosions are made up of twisted magnetic fields, when they meet the Earth’s magnetic field it’s like two bar magnets meeting, and a lot of energy is released and hot particles enter into the Earth’s atmosphere. These particles bump into molecules which give off light – we see this as the aurora (or Northern Lights)! Weaker explosions cause less bright aurora and not too many problems for us. However, very big explosions can cause really bright Northern Lights which can be seen from countries further south than usual, and also cause radio blackouts, damage power stations, damage satellites, and they’re really bad for astronauts!