It’s Only A Matter Of Time Before Another Carrington-Class Event Impacts Earth

The Carrington Event Solar Superstorm came just a few months before the solar maximum of 1860. 164 years ago, on September 1, 1859, a massive solar flare erupted on the sun blasting high-energy light and charged particles at the Earth. It produced brilliant auroras as far south as Hawaii and Cuba, destroyed telegraph equipment, shocked operators, and ignited telegraph paper. The major CME event traversed the 150 million km distance between the sun and Earth in just 17.6 hours, much faster than the multi-day period it usually takes CMEs to reach the distance of Earth’s orbit. A Carrington-level flare today would likely overload the entire power grid. A Carrington-class superstorm erupted from the sun on July 23, 2012, and narrowly missed Earth by just nine days, providing a stark warning from our sun, that it is only a matter of time before another Carrington-class event impacts Earth. 164 years after the Carrington Event the world is still NOT prepared for large-scale solar storm and what it would do to us. The nine day near miss of the 2012 Carrington-class event should have been a major wake-up call, especially given techological advancements and our dependence on it for every day life. But warning does not appear to have been heeded as well as it should have. Thanks for watching! #Carringtonevent #solarsuperstorm #majorCME Images credit: AIA/SDO, ESA, /SOHO/LASCO, NOAA/SWPC, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Music credit: YouTube Audio Library Alpha Mission - Jimena Contreras