Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.

CARL SAGAN

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Coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) are huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines that are ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours…CMEs disrupt the flow of the solar wind and produce disturbances that strike the Earth with sometimes catastrophic results…coronal mass ejections are often associated with solar flares and prominence eruptions but they can also occur in the absence of either of these processes…the frequency of CMEs varies with the sunspot cycle. At solar minimum we observe about one CME a week. Near solar maximum we observe an average of 2 to 3 CMEs per day.

NASA, MARSHALL SFC