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)

A woman wearing masks, stretches her arms in Hong Kong, Wednesday, February 19, 2020. Russia says it will temporarily ban Chinese nationals from entering the country amid the outbreak of the new virus centered in China that has infected more than 73,000 people. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

A veterinarian takes a sample from a cat at an animal shelter in Yeoju, southeast of Seoul, South Korea, 01 August 2023, after cats were found to have been infected with a highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain at shelters in Seoul on 25 and 29 July, marking the first infections of the virus in mammals since 2016. (Photo by Yonhap/EPA)

A Palestinian girl wear a face mask during a lockdown imposed following the discovery of coronavirus cases in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, August 27, 2020. On Wednesday Gaza's Hamas rulers extended a full lockdown in the Palestinian enclave for three more days as coronavirus cases climbed after the detection this week of the first community transmissions of the virus in the densely populated, blockaded territory. (Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)

A health worker applies a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine during the first day of a three-day COVID-19 vaccination campaign for people over age 35 in the Complexo da Maré favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Brazil, Thursday, July 29, 2021. Some recipients will be monitored to study the rate of protection the vaccines provide and the extent to which virus variants are circulating. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)

Sabrina Crespo da Silva removes electrical tape from a client at her Sabrina Bronze rooftop salon, where she offers the service of taping on bikini tops which create crisp tan lines, in the Turano favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, January 27, 2022. Even though beaches reopened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some clients using Sabrina's rooftop service say they are still anxious about returning to the crowded seashore and potentially catching the virus. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

Masked up revellers hit the town in Sheffield, United Kingdom on October 10, 2020 before the Prime Minister introduces a three-tier lockdown system that will see hospitality venues shut in virus hotspots. (Photo by London News Pictures/The Sun)

Mahmoud El Komy, a 26-year-old Egyptian mechatronics engineer, stands beside Cira 3, a remote-controlled robot that runs tests on suspected coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, to limit the human exposure to the virus, amid a second wave of infections in Tanta, Egypt, November 18, 2020. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)