Sun unleashes solar storm at Earth, U.S. may see brilliant aurora

The sun, in a heightened state of solar activity, has hurled a potent mass of material at Earth.This could mean glorious aurora, or Northern Lights, over parts of the U.S. on July 24, according to the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center.The inciting event, which occurred on July 21, is intense but normal. It's called a coronal mass ejection, or CME. These occur when the sun ejects a mass of super hot gas (plasma). "It's like scooping up a piece of the sun and ejecting it into sp