Watch in 1080p as massive solar eruptions take aim at our high-tech society. 93 million miles away... an angry sun vents its rage. Dark regions, called sunspots, appeared unexpectedly on its surface... a sign of rising tension within. It had been three and a half years since the sun last erupted in fury...at the peak of an 11-year cycle of solar flare-ups. Back then, we got ready for it... by shutting down satellites that were vulnerable to high levels of radiation. But no one expected this. In ... View MoreWatch in 1080p as massive solar eruptions take aim at our high-tech society. 93 million miles away... an angry sun vents its rage. Dark regions, called sunspots, appeared unexpectedly on its surface... a sign of rising tension within. It had been three and a half years since the sun last erupted in fury...at the peak of an 11-year cycle of solar flare-ups. Back then, we got ready for it... by shutting down satellites that were vulnerable to high levels of radiation. But no one expected this. In what should have been a low point in solar activity, the sun erupted in a series of massive explosions, called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. Electrified gas clouds weighing billions of tons raced outward. Solar telescopes recorded the action... The largest emission of solar x-rays ever seen. The hottest flares, at tens of millions of degrees. And the fastest... reaching speeds clocked at six million miles per hour. The sun became a giant plasma weapon... more potent than any in science fiction... and pointed right at our home planet. On Earth... the Halloween storms produced some of the most spectacular auroras ever seen at the north and south poles. They also brought jolts of electricity that caused power outages in Sweden, and disrupted airline navigation. In space, these storms damaged 28 communications satellites, and destroyed two. And they didn't stop there. As the energetic surge swept past Mars, it was so strong it burned out the radiation monitor aboard the spacecraft ...
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