‘Christmas storm’ likely after major solar flare

Vibrant northern lights will likely be on display Wednesday

People in the northern hemisphere will be treated to dazzling displays of the aurora borealis on Wednesday, as a coronal mass ejection from the sun brushes up against our planet, according to Russian scientists.

After two weeks of relative inactivity, the sun experienced a class-M flare on Monday, with a magnitude of 8.9, just shy of making it class-X. The flare happened in the sunspot group 3932...