On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3. (Photo by NASA/GSFC/SDO via The Atlantic)

In this handout photo provided by Warner Brothers Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, Tom Cruise plays Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cage, a soldier who replays his last day while trying to fight aliens, in director Doug Liman's “All You Need Is Kill”. The film is set to premiere on March 14, 2014. (Photo by David James/Warner Brothers Pictures)

Jiejin Qiu, who is six months pregnant with her first baby, poses underwater during a photo shoot at a local wedding photo studio in Shanghai, in this September 5, 2014 file photo. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

In this Sunday, March 5, 2017, photo, hospitality staff take souvenir photos in front of the Great Hall of the People where the National People's Congress is held in Beijing. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Dogs pose for a photo in the likeness of a photo time line of Face Book during the “Blocao” dog carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, February 14, 2015. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

In this Tuesday, December 15, 2015 photo, an Afghan man sells traditional sauces and pickles on a street in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Massoud Hossaini/AP Photo)

In a photo taken on October 7, 2020 a woman holds two dogs as she waits for a train in Suncheon. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

Dancers pose for photos at a park in Beijing, China, Thursday, October 14, 2021. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)