Hi Sydney,

That's a great question!

When a coronal mass ejection (or CME) reaches the Earth, it can cause brilliant displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights. The geomagnetic storm caused by the interaction between a CME and the Earth's magnetosphere can also produce radio emissions such as auroral kilometric radiation, which is associated with the aurora borealis, and chorus waves, which are associated with the Van Allen radiation belts.

We don't have as much information about the magnetospheres of the outer planets as we do about Earth' magnetosphere. However, data from the recent Jupiter flyby made by the Cassini spacecraft on its way to Saturn suggest that CMEs can affect Jupiter's magnetosphere. After the arrival of the CMEs at Jupiter, the aurora brightened and radio emissions were recorded in Jupiter's magnetosphere. Jupiter's magnetosphere is very different from the Earth's magnetosphere, but the data we have suggest that there are some similarities in the way the magnetospheres of both planets behave in response to solar wind disturbances. You can hear what some of the radio waves from the magnetospheres of Earth and Jupiter sound like here:

http://www-pw.physics.uio.../space-audio/sounds/

Scientists studying the outermost boundary of the heliosphere ( the region of space affected by our Sun) using data from the Voyager 1 spacecraft have also seen evidence for radio emissions produced by CMEs and solar flares close to the boundary of the heliosphere. You can hear what some of the radio emissions produced by the interaction of CME shock waves and the heliopause (the boundary between the solar wind and interstellar space) sound like here:

http://www-pw.physics.uio...audio/vgr-helio.html

Kris

Dear Sydney,

This is a great question! The solar wind that constantly gets blown out from the Sun extends well beyond the orbit of Neptune, creating a "bubble" of gas that we call the heliosphere. The solar wind travels at an average speed of 450 km/s (or ~280 miles per second!), and CMEs have a range of speeds- once CMEs erupt from the Sun, they become entrained in the solar wind and will sometimes slow down (if they are originally traveling faster than the solar wind) or speed up (if they are originally traveling slower than the solar wind). Once CMEs reach to the orbits of the planets, they are called ICMEs (Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections) and can be identified at very large distances, extending to the outer heliosphere. I'm not an expert on ICMEs, but I would guess that they can potentially have an effect on all of the planets, but to what extent depends on the individual ICME physical characteristics such as speed, density, and magnetic structure, at the time it reaches a particular planet.

Holly