A large coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to collide with the Earth’s magnetic field on Oct. 30 following an incredible solar flare eruption on Thursday. The sun unleashed an X1-class solar flare, its most powerful kind of flare, on Thursday. It peaked at 11:35 a.m.EDT (1535 GMT), according to an alert from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). A coronal mass ejection (CME), also known as a solar storm, occurs when a large mass of plasma and highly magnetized particles violently eject from the sun. Large CME’s can contain up to a billion tons of matter and can get accelerated to large fractions of the speed of light. When the Earth is in the direct path of a CME, these magnetized and charged solar particles interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, producing geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) that can potentially disrupt communication satellites and long-distance cables that provide the world with the internet. A direct hit with the Earth can also …