Post by coolplanet on Jul 25, 2014 22:01:08 GMT -5
Solar Blast Nearly Sent Earth to Stone Age
Electrical grid, satellites, water almost lost in 2012, scientists say
July 25, 2014
www.newser.com/story/191522/solar-blast-nearly-sent-earth-to-stone-age.html
Thwack! No TVs, hospital equipment, water, or electrical light—all of those miseries and more nearly befell us two years ago thanks to a huge solar storm. Scientists say that on July 23, 2012, the sun belched its biggest solar flare in more than 150 years and barely missed our planet, CBS News reports. A week earlier and the storm would have struck Earth on its orbit with "catastrophic" effects, NASA says, blacking out radios, screwing up GPS, damaging satellite communications, cutting electrical power, and "disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket." Life on Earth would suffer no direct damage, and the Southern and Northern Lights would be gorgeous, but the blast's mix of X-rays, extreme UV radiation, energetic particles, and massive clouds of magnetized plasma would cost an estimated $2 trillion.
Such a blast would also leave "large parts of society" crippled for months or years while workers replaced huge transformers and substations, ExtremeTech reports. With the sun on an 11-year solar-storm cycle, it's nearly happened before: A massive storm called the "Carrington Event" struck Earth in 1859 but couldn't inflict much electrical damage in the age of steam engines (telegraph lines did spark and set fire), and a pretty powerful storm caused blackouts across Quebec in 1989. There's a 12% chance of a big one hitting us over the next decade, according to one study—which a co-author calls a "sobering figure." But another author tells the Guardian how lucky we are: "Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did."
Electrical grid, satellites, water almost lost in 2012, scientists say
July 25, 2014
www.newser.com/story/191522/solar-blast-nearly-sent-earth-to-stone-age.html
Thwack! No TVs, hospital equipment, water, or electrical light—all of those miseries and more nearly befell us two years ago thanks to a huge solar storm. Scientists say that on July 23, 2012, the sun belched its biggest solar flare in more than 150 years and barely missed our planet, CBS News reports. A week earlier and the storm would have struck Earth on its orbit with "catastrophic" effects, NASA says, blacking out radios, screwing up GPS, damaging satellite communications, cutting electrical power, and "disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket." Life on Earth would suffer no direct damage, and the Southern and Northern Lights would be gorgeous, but the blast's mix of X-rays, extreme UV radiation, energetic particles, and massive clouds of magnetized plasma would cost an estimated $2 trillion.
Such a blast would also leave "large parts of society" crippled for months or years while workers replaced huge transformers and substations, ExtremeTech reports. With the sun on an 11-year solar-storm cycle, it's nearly happened before: A massive storm called the "Carrington Event" struck Earth in 1859 but couldn't inflict much electrical damage in the age of steam engines (telegraph lines did spark and set fire), and a pretty powerful storm caused blackouts across Quebec in 1989. There's a 12% chance of a big one hitting us over the next decade, according to one study—which a co-author calls a "sobering figure." But another author tells the Guardian how lucky we are: "Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did."