If aimed toward Earth, this outpouring of energy can interact with our magnetosphere, infusing molecules in the atmosphere with extra energy that then gets released as light, producing aurorae.

Like the ozone layer, the magnetosphere is important to life on Earth because it protects us from most of the harmful radiation and hot plasma from the Sun, deflecting it into space.

The Earth is protected from much of this radiation because it has an internal magnetic field that generates a protective magnetosphere.