A Prominence Eruption Sends a CME to Mercury

On April 22, 2012, filament material uncurled as an erupting prominence around sunspot group AR11463.

Mercury Bound CME in LASCO/C2

Mercury-Bound CME in LASCO/C2

There was a C1.8 solar flare and the resulting eruption produced a SCORE-C CME detected by SOHO/LASCO C2 at 15:30 UT. With a speed of ~646 km/s, the NASA Space Weather Center predicts the CME will impact the planet Mercury om 04/24/2012 at 01:07 UT.