Figure 9-22 A Coronal Mass Ejection When a violent coronal mass ejection occurs on the side of the Sun facing Earth, a mountain of material is sent hurtling toward Earth. Within two to four days the fastest-moving ejected material reaches Earth, where most of the particles are deflected by Earth’s magnetosphere, but some are able to reach Earth, causing aurorae, as shown in Figure 9-23. (The ejection shown was not aimed toward Earth and did not affect us.)