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Coronal Mass Ejection Trivia Questions

How much do you really know about Coronal Mass Ejection? Below are 8 true or false statements. Click each one to reveal the answer and explanation.

1.

CMEs are always directed toward Earth, posing constant danger to satellites.

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Easy
✗ FALSE

Most CMEs shoot out in random directions away from Earth. Only about 1 in 10 are Earth-directed.

2.

CMEs travel at the speed of light, reaching Earth in about 8 minutes.

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Easy
✗ FALSE

CMEs are slower, typically taking 1-3 days to reach Earth. Only light from the Sun arrives in 8 minutes.

3.

CMEs only occur during solar maximum, never during solar minimum.

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Easy
✗ FALSE

CMEs are more frequent during solar maximum but can still occur during solar minimum, though less often.

4.

The largest recorded CME in modern history knocked out power grids across entire continents.

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Medium
✓ TRUE

The 1859 Carrington Event caused telegraph systems to fail globally. A similar CME today could blackout entire continents.

5.

Coronal mass ejections can trigger auroras visible at latitudes far lower than normal.

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Medium
✓ TRUE

Strong CMEs disrupt Earth's magnetosphere, pushing auroral ovals toward the equator, making them visible in places like Texas or Southern Europe.

6.

CMEs are caused by sudden cooling of sunspot regions on the Sun's surface.

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Medium
✗ FALSE

CMEs are triggered by magnetic field reconnection and solar flares, not cooling. Sunspots are cooler but unrelated to CME origin.

7.

CMEs can accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light, creating solar energetic particles.

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Hard
✓ TRUE

Shock waves from CMEs accelerate protons and electrons to relativistic speeds, posing radiation hazards to astronauts and electronics.

8.

A single CME can contain more mass than all the water in Earth's oceans combined.

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Hard
✓ TRUE

A large CME ejects billions of tons of plasma—more than the total mass of Earth's oceans, which is about 1.4 quintillion tons.

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