Double blast this weekend: On Friday, twisted magnetic fields above sunspot 9661 erupted powerfully — not once, but twice — at 0105 UT and again at 1640 UT. Both explosions unleashed category X1.6 solar flares and hurled lopsided coronal mass ejections (CMEs) toward Earth. The expanding clouds will likely strike Earth’s magnetosphere on Oct. 21st and possibly ignite Northern Lights during this weekend’s Orionid meteor shower. spaceweather.com