• Question: How far can Coronal mass ejections travel?

    Asked by cai192546 to Sara on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Hey cai! Sorry not to get to this question earlier – there was a problem with ASK yesterday for awhile.

      We have this thing called the heliosphere that defines the boundary of our solar system. It is huge! Way farther than the orbit of Pluto. Its boundary is defined by how far the solar wind reaches (the solar wind is the constant stream of charged particles coming off the surface of the Sun). I looked up some numbers on coronal mass ejections – turns out they can go pretty far. Here’s a cool statistic: A coronal mass ejection can make the 93-million-mile journey to Earth in just three to four days. This implies an average speed of about one million miles per hour! I haven’t found a number on how far CME’s can travel, but I imagine they have some effect all the way out to the boundary of the heliosphere. So pretty far! Farther than Pluto anyways =)

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