In some cases, sparks flew, fires started, and operators suffered electric shock. When the solar storm struck, telegraph lines all over North America and Europe were impacted. It also gut punched humanity’s fledgling communications systems. The storm occurred a few months before solar maximum of solar cycle 10 and it created incredible aurora which were reported all over the world. In 1859, an intense geomagnetic storm struck the planet in what has become known as The Carrington Event. RELATED: The Earth Just Got Hit With Two Powerful Solar Flares and More Are On the Way However, they can cause problems for satellites or astronauts in low-Earth orbit, and they can mess with our communications and electrical systems here on the ground. Mostly, the way we experience them is through aurora which light up the night sky near the poles and, during periods of heightened solar activity, closer to the equator. Solar flares and CMEs don’t pose much of a threat to us directly you don’t have to worry about being struck down by a beam of solar energy or anything. A Powerful Solar Storm Could Trigger an “Internet Apocalypse” Now, data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe could provide information that might prevent a technological end of the world. And that could result in an apocalypse of another kind. While we haven’t pumped the atmosphere with flammable concentrations of methane, we have put considerable energy toward building communications infrastructure. In the real world, we’re coming up on solar maximum of solar cycle 25 and the Sun is ramping up the strength and frequency of its CMEs and solar flares. That’s what happens in Solar Attack ( streaming now on Peacock!) when a large CME, coupled with increased levels of methane in Earth’s atmosphere, threatens to cook the planet in a global extinction-level blaze. As long as the Sun’s meltdown is mild to moderate, we should skate through it without too much trouble, but if things go wrong in just the right way, the results could be catastrophic. The Earth, and the rest of the solar system, must endure a burst of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) spewing solar particles and electromagnetic radiation. Every eleven years, on average, the Sun reaches the peak of its activity cycle and throws a cosmic hissy fit.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |