facebook is facing two lawsuits one by the US federal government and the other is from the 46 US states.

Both suits accuses Facebook for trying to keep competition out of the digital marketplace.

More than 3 billion people of 7.7 billion people worldwide use an application owned by Facebook.

The company is more than a social - networking site and the US government says that Facebook bought these apps to prevent them from eventually competing with the company.

Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram are all owned by facebook.

Suits say this breaks America's anti - trust laws, which are designed to keep the nation's businesses from having too much power.

Both legal challenges seek to decrease Facebook's power by forcing it to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp into separate companies.

Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 and it says the US government approved those purchases then and that it now wants a do - over.

The social media company also says people don't choose Facebook's services because they have to but because its apps deliver the most value.

Facebook is not the only technology company accused of breaking anti trust laws.

The American government and 11 states filed suit against Google in October, saying it's worked to prevent competition in online searches and advertising.

Google had a similar response to Facebook's, it says people use its platform because they choose to, not because they're forced to.

These lawsuits could take years to resolve and European officials have also been concerned about US tech companies.

Next week, they're expected to put new rules in place that are designed to limit the power of Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon.

The sun has hurled plasma and other magnetic activity toward the Earth.

It is going to hurt anyone though scientists say it could interfere with the power grid and with the GPS.

The fun part of a possible geomagnetic storm is that the Northern lights could be seen in places farther South than usual, places that rarely get a glimpse of aurora borealis.

Parts of Idaho, Pennsylvania, Oregon, maybe even New York could see an unusually illuminating event.

A aurora is one of the most fascinating and beautiful naturally - occurring phenomena.

This happens above the magnetic poles in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and they form when gases particles in the Earth's atmosphere collide with charges particles release from the sun, electrons and protons from the sun are blown toward the Earth by the solar wind.

These are carried towards Earth, most of them are deflected by Earth's magnetic field.

The magnetic field is weaker at the poles, allowing some of the particles to funnel into the Earth's atmosphere.

The vibrant colors produced are determined by the type of gases that are colliding and the result is a Northern light and common green and yellow, less common blue and violet, even rare reds painting the night sky and ribbons, arcs or shooting rays.

Oxygen produces green and red light, while nitrogen gives off blue and purple. The best time of year to view the light show is during the Winter months, when the nights are longer, under a cloud free sky, away from light pollution.

In the Northern Hemisphere astronomical Winter officially begins this year on December 21 and it is based on Earth's position in relation to the Sun.

21st is when we'll see the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, when astronomical winter begins.

Meteorological winter, which began on December 1st, is based on the yearly temperature cycle.

Now that we are in meteorological winter you may hear meteorologists talk more about a weather phenomenon called an atmospheric river.

Atmospheric rivers are found way up in the air and are responsible for transporting water vapor poleward from the tropics.

When you see one on satellite it looks very much like a river you would find on the surface of the Earth and these rivers are a lot larger, however.

NOAA says an atmospheric river is roughly 250 to 375 miles wide and can be thousands of miles in length and you can find one present somewhere in the world at any point in time.

The United States and the rest of North America mainly feel the effects during the early winter months, when the jet stream becomes more active and these impacts are in the form of extreme precipitation.

Most atmospheric rivers simply provide beneficial rain, and snow to areas, for example, the US West Coast receives 30% to 50% of its annual precipitation from atmospheric rivers and some intense cases, severe flooding and mudslides or landslides can occur when it's slow to move out.

Atmospheric river can transport up to 15 times the average flow of water found at the mouth of the Mississippi River and one of the most well know atmospheric rivers is the Pineapple Express, which is the partly responsible for transporting deep, tropical moisture from Hawaii to the West Coast.