Post by kriss on Jan 29, 2022 18:16:14 GMT -5
In 7176 BCE, the Sun erupted in what may be the biggest blast in 10,000 years
Fri, January 28, 2022, 8:00 AM
The Universe is scary. There are dangers galore, including black holes, asteroid impacts, supernova explosions, and more. However these events tend to be far away and/or extremely rare, so they're nothing you really need to worry about in your daily life.
And then there are solar storms. If there's any astronomical event we need to take very, very seriously, even more than asteroid and comet impacts, it's these.
We know of several big ones that have happened in the past century or two, but historic storms can be discovered as well. Looking at ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, scientists just announced they found a new one. It occurred in 7176 BCE, and it was huge, possibly the largest in the past 10,000 years .
Solar storms come in two broad categories. One type is a solar flare, an immensely powerful explosion on the Sun's surface that is extremely bright in high-energy gamma and X-rays. Another is a coronal mass ejection, or CME, which is when a huge area above the Sun blasts up to a billion tons of subatomic particles away at speeds of millions of kilometers per hour. Both are generated by the Sun's magnetic field, which can store tremendous energy, and sometimes a flare is followed by a CME.
A huge solar flare erupted on the Sun in October 2003, seen here in X-rays. It was also accompanied by a powerful coronal mass ejection. Solar storms like these are a danger to our power grid and orbiting satellites. Credit: NASA/SOHO
Both can wreak havoc on Earth. A truly big eruption from the Sun aimed our way would be disastrous for our modern civilization. It could wipe out satellites, cause electronics damage on the ground, and also create widespread power outages by taking down the electric power grid. A severe storm could leave large swaths of humanity without power for a long time, months or more. It would be catastrophic.
We've seen a handful of storms this big in modern times. In 1989 a solar event blew out transformers in Canada, causing a power outage in Quebec. Another in 1859, called the Carrington Event, ushered in the modern era of studying solar storms. There was one in 1956 so powerful it's now used as a baseline for measuring the effects of storms on Earth.
A truly massive CME erupted from the Sun in 2012, but missed the Earth.
It is no exaggeration to say that had it been aimed right at us it could have been the biggest catastrophe of the modern age.
More: www.yahoo.com/entertainment/7176-bce-sun-erupted-may-140005823.html
Fri, January 28, 2022, 8:00 AM
The Universe is scary. There are dangers galore, including black holes, asteroid impacts, supernova explosions, and more. However these events tend to be far away and/or extremely rare, so they're nothing you really need to worry about in your daily life.
And then there are solar storms. If there's any astronomical event we need to take very, very seriously, even more than asteroid and comet impacts, it's these.
We know of several big ones that have happened in the past century or two, but historic storms can be discovered as well. Looking at ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, scientists just announced they found a new one. It occurred in 7176 BCE, and it was huge, possibly the largest in the past 10,000 years .
Solar storms come in two broad categories. One type is a solar flare, an immensely powerful explosion on the Sun's surface that is extremely bright in high-energy gamma and X-rays. Another is a coronal mass ejection, or CME, which is when a huge area above the Sun blasts up to a billion tons of subatomic particles away at speeds of millions of kilometers per hour. Both are generated by the Sun's magnetic field, which can store tremendous energy, and sometimes a flare is followed by a CME.
A huge solar flare erupted on the Sun in October 2003, seen here in X-rays. It was also accompanied by a powerful coronal mass ejection. Solar storms like these are a danger to our power grid and orbiting satellites. Credit: NASA/SOHO
Both can wreak havoc on Earth. A truly big eruption from the Sun aimed our way would be disastrous for our modern civilization. It could wipe out satellites, cause electronics damage on the ground, and also create widespread power outages by taking down the electric power grid. A severe storm could leave large swaths of humanity without power for a long time, months or more. It would be catastrophic.
We've seen a handful of storms this big in modern times. In 1989 a solar event blew out transformers in Canada, causing a power outage in Quebec. Another in 1859, called the Carrington Event, ushered in the modern era of studying solar storms. There was one in 1956 so powerful it's now used as a baseline for measuring the effects of storms on Earth.
A truly massive CME erupted from the Sun in 2012, but missed the Earth.
It is no exaggeration to say that had it been aimed right at us it could have been the biggest catastrophe of the modern age.
More: www.yahoo.com/entertainment/7176-bce-sun-erupted-may-140005823.html