A rare celestial event might be on the horizon, but not everyone will have the privilege of witnessing it. The sun unleashed a potent solar flare recently, propelling a coronal mass ejection (CME) hurtling toward our planet.

Coronal mass ejections are significant releases of plasma and magnetic fields that can zip through space at astounding speeds, reaching up to 3,000 kilometers per second. This particular CME has sparked a major geomagnetic storm, capturing the attention of both scientists and skywatchers.

In response to this cosmic disturbance, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Australian Space Weather Forecasting System promptly issued an alert. The bureau remains vigilant, closely monitoring the situation and pledging to provide updates if there are any notable changes.

“The Bureau continues to monitor the situation and will provide updates of significant changes,” a spokesperson confirmed to 9news.com.au, underscoring the dynamic nature of space weather and its potential impacts on Earth.

“The Bureau continues to monitor the situation and will provide updates of significant changes,” a spokesperson told 9news.com.au.

It all sounds like something out of a sci-fi film like Armageddon but Swinburne University of Technology astrophysics lecturer Dr Kirsten Banks said it’s normal.

”The sun does release lots of flares, especially around this time of its cycle,” she said.

“This is very natural.”

The sun follows an 11-year cycle in which it shifts from being not very active to very active, and right now it’s in a very active phase.

But what does that have to do with the aurora Australis?

When the sun releases a CME, energy and charged particles may collide with the Earth’s atmosphere and interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, causing geomagnetic storms.

That can push charged particles like electrons further down into the atmosphere near the Earth’s magnetic poles.

Those particles interact with other particles in the atmosphere, like oxygen and nitrogen, to produce colourful aurora.

And Australians in the nation’s south have the chance to witness the rare phenomenon tonight.

People in Victoria, Tasmania, and the southern parts of South Australia and Western Australia may see the aurora australis with the naked eye tonight.

“Bright auroras can be visible at lower latitudes than usual when geomagnetic storms at this intensity occur, including dark-sky locations in the southern Australian region,” the BoM spokesperson said.

“As current geomagnetic storm conditions are ongoing, there is a chance that the aurora may be visible this evening, although the chance of auroral sightings may decrease if and when storming conditions begin to subside.”

Banks witnessed the aurora australis from Brighton in Melbourne the last time an event like this happened in November 2025.

She urged Aussies to take the chance to see them again tonight.

“It’s always a good time to look up at the night sky, today’s just extra special,” she said.

As for whether Aussies should be worried about negative impacts from the ongoing geomagnetic storm, Banks said the risks of something going wrong are low.

“Satellites that are higher up in orbit around the Earth may get affected by this solar activity,” she said.

“And we do need to put in protective measures to help our uh power grids to not surge from all this activity if we do have [a major event].”

Otherwise, her advice to everyone in the southern parts of Australia is to get the binoculars and train them on the sky tonight.