Ancient solar storm smashed Earth at the wrong part of the sun's cycle

[Submariner]

— and scientists are concerned.

By Brandon Specktor published 1 day ago

The 9,200-year-old storm left researchers with a stark conclusion: We are not ready for the next one.


A massive solar flare (or coronal mass ejection) erupts out of the sun in 2017.

An extremely powerful solar storm pummeled our planet 9,200 years ago, leaving permanent scars on the ice buried deep below Greenland and Antarctica.

A new study of those ancient ice samples has found that this previously unknown storm is one of the strongest outbursts of solar weather ever detected and would have crippled modern communications systems if it had hit Earth today.

But perhaps most surprising, the massive storm appears to have hit during a solar minimum, the point during the sun's 11-year cycle when solar outbursts are typically much less common, according to the study, published Jan. 11 in the journal Nature Communications. Because of this unexpected discovery, the study researchers are concerned that devastating solar storms could hit when we least expect them — and that Earth might not be prepared when the next big one arrives.

"These enormous storms are currently not sufficiently included in risk assessments," study co-author Raimund Muscheler, a geology researcher at Lund University in Sweden, said in a statement. "It is of the utmost importance to analyze what these events could mean for today's technology and how we can protect ourselves."


One of the long ice cores examined in the new study.

When stars attack

Solar storms occur when magnetic field lines on the sun's corona (the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere) become tangled up and then violently snap back into place. This sudden magnetic reconnection can release huge gouts of plasma and magnetic field known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which surf across space on the sun's ever-gusting solar wind.

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https://www.livescience.com/ancient-solar-storm-solar-minimum

Keep your sunscreen handy. I'd go with the SPF 50 just to be on the safe side.

[ret5hd]

1. Just FYI:

That kitchen gadget called a "microwave oven" is a handy faraday cage for your small electronics...phone, etc. There will be a warning when/if this happens, so plan to use it.

The bad part is, all the infrastructure to make your phones work will be blasted...so no phone service, probably no vehicles with electronics, no radio, etc etc.

But your pictures of Uncle Jeb and Aunt Bebe will be safe in your microwave oven.

[multigraincracker]

2. I've got a crank up radio and

a 1960 Dodge.

[ret5hd]

3. Put the radio in the microwave till...

the blast is over, or it will be toast too. Any electronics will be toast.

[multigraincracker]

4. Thanks. I'll pick up an old

at a garage sale. I use it all the time.

[ret5hd]

5. What will be hilarious...

If that REALLY does happen, is gonna be the real-life true no-shit zombie apocalypse: millions of people shuffling clumsily around the landscape, disheveled, dirty, glassy eyed with dead cellphones in their hands saying “faaaacebooook… faaaacebooook” or “twiiiitteeeer… twiiiitteeeer”.

[multigraincracker]

7. Dang, i'll have to shoot a deer.

No more road kill. I can toss my hand held CB in that old microwave to. I never did like all of that trucker talk.

[sdfernando]

6. SPF 50??

Anyone not wearing two-million sunblock is going to have a real bad day - Sarah Connor