Latest news with #CarringtonEvent
India.com
5 days ago
- Science
- India.com
Neither humans nor birds, Earth will be destroyed in just a moment due to..., know what is Miyake event
Solar storm- Representative image We all have heard since our childhood that a day will come when everything on Earth will be destroyed. Adding to the theory, it is also said that 'Mahapralaya' occurred on Earth millions of years ago, leading to destruction of everything on Earth. However, this story is about an event, which is assumed to be more dangerous than this 'Mahapralaya' in our universe. Largest-ever solar storm In a massive discovery reported in 2023, an international team of scientists discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago. The scientists got to the result by analysing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps. As per the report, scientists discovered that the radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified, as per a report carried by IANS. The largest and the directly-observed was a solar storm that occurred in 1859. It is known as the Carrington Event and was caused massive disruption on Earth. As a result of the storm, telegraph machines were destroyed, creating a night-time aurora so bright that birds began to sing. Details on Miyake Events It has also been known that nine such extreme solar storms — known as Miyake Events — have been identified as having occurred over the last 15,000 years. As per the IANS report, the most recent confirmed Miyake Events occurred in 993 AD and 774 AD. However, it also reported that this newly-identified 14,300-year-old storm is however the largest that has ever been found. However, the Miyake Events would have been a staggering entire order-of-magnitude greater in size. Extreme solar storms Most importantly, the scientists have warned that it is critical to understand the future risks of events like this, to enable us to prepare, build resilience into our communications and energy systems and shield them from potential damage. 'Extreme solar storms could have huge impacts on Earth. Such super storms could permanently damage the transformers in our electricity grids, resulting in huge and widespread blackouts lasting months,' said Tim Heaton, Professor of Applied Statistics in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds in the UK. (With inputs from agencies)
India Today
24-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Blast from the Sun 14,000 years ago was so powerful trees still remember it
Scientists have uncovered evidence of a colossal solar storm that struck Earth more than 14,000 years ago, an event so powerful that its effects are still recorded in tree rings in the upcoming July 2025 issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, this ancient storm, which occurred around 12,350 BC, dwarfs any solar storm recorded in modern history and would wreak havoc on today's technology if it were to happen as a "Miyake Event," this storm far surpasses the infamous Carrington Event of 1859, previously considered the benchmark for extreme solar activity. Miyake Events are identified by spikes in carbon-14 levels found in tree rings—carbon-14 being a radioactive isotope produced when solar particles collide with Earth's atmosphere. Since the first discovery by Fusa Miyake in 2012, at least six such events have been confirmed, including those in 774 AD and 993 12,350 BC Miyake Event stands out due to its immense scale and the challenges it posed to scientists trying to interpret it. The spike in carbon-14 was detected in Scots Pine trees along France's Drouzet River, and corroborated by matching beryllium-10 levels in Greenland ice cores, confirming the storm's global interpreting these signals was complicated by the fact that the event occurred during the Ice Age, a period with very different atmospheric and climatic conditions compared to the relatively stable Holocene epoch when most other Miyake Events tackle this, researchers Kseniia Golubenko and Ilya Usoskin from the University of Oulu, Finland, developed a specialised chemistry-climate model. This model accounts for Ice Age variables such as ice sheet boundaries, sea levels, and geomagnetic fields, enabling accurate analysis of the ancient findings reveal that the 12,350 BC storm unleashed a solar particle bombardment 500 times stronger than the largest solar particle storm recorded by satellites in put this in perspective, during the 2005 event, a passenger flying over the poles might have received a year's worth of cosmic radiation in one hour; during the Ice Age event, the same dose would have been delivered in just eight discovery not only redefines the worst-case scenario for space weather but also opens the door to studying even older solar storms, potentially uncovering more extreme events hidden in Earth's ancient Watch
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
How space weather impacts us: A look at some of the worst solar storms in history
Last week, the sun spat out the strongest solar flare of the year so far, a burst of radiation and light that caused brief radio blackouts on the sunlit side of the Earth. Despite its impressive magnitude — the flare was an X-class, the most severe type of solar flare — it went largely unnoticed to those on the ground not dialled in to space news. But geomagnetic storms and more serious types of space weather, which can follow solar flares, have the ability to shut down power grids, disrupt aircraft routes, global communications and GPS, and damage satellites and spacecraft. It has not only happened to us before, but it could happen again. On Sept. 1, 1859, amateur astronomers Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson both witnessed a massive flare of light from the sun's surface while observing a cluster of sunspots. Within a day, a geomagnetic storm had struck the Earth, sparking dazzling arrays of aurora borealis and knocking out telegraph systems across Europe and North America. Telegraph operators across Europe and North America found their systems overwhelmed and signals down, with some wires overheating so much they triggered fires. Other workers unplugged batteries only to find that the telegraph systems kept humming away, supercharged by the sun. One superintendent from Boston, Mass., whose observations were recorded in an 1860 article in the American Journal of Science, reported that a telegraph wire between Boston and Fall River "had no battery connected with it on Saturday, and yet there was a current upon it during the entire day." So what happened? Today, experts believe that the 1859 geomagnetic storm, now known as the Carrington Event, was caused by at least one, or possibly two, coronal mass ejections (CME). These are immense eruptions of solar material that often follow a solar flare. Because the sun's equator rotates faster than its poles, its magnetic fields can get tangled up. When the strain gets too severe, these magnetic fields can snap, releasing a burst of energy or solar material out into space. A solar flare emits radiation that interacts with our upper atmosphere, impacting radio signals, without really affecting us on the ground. But a CME is a massive eruption of charged particles and plasma, sometimes millions of miles wide, which can travel up to thousands of kilometres per second on solar winds. When its magnetic field slams into the Earth's, it can spark geomagnetic storms that disrupt critical infrastructure. In 1859, that was telegraph operations, but today, it's power grids, satellites and global navigation systems. Because the northern lights are caused by charged particles interacting with our magnetic field at the poles, a CME can also cause dramatic displays of aurora borealis, like the ones seen during geomagnetic storms in October and May 2024. Although they can occur independently of each other, stronger solar flares are often accompanied by CMEs, according to Robyn Fiori, a research scientist in the space weather group of the Canadian Hazards Information Service with Natural Resources Canada. "There's lots of different critical systems that can be impacted by space weather. So it's a good idea to keep track of what's going on," she said. The last big solar event to have a notable impact on a power grid was in 2003, Fiori said, when a number of geomagnetic storms known as "the Halloween storms" rerouted aircraft, affected GPS systems used for deep-sea drilling, prompted astronauts in the International Space Station to take shelter from radiation in a specific part of the station, damaged a Japanese satellite beyond repair and triggered a power outage in Malmö, Sweden. This event included a flare so large it overwhelmed the X-ray detectors on a number of satellites. It was later estimated to be an X28 flare, according to the European Space Agency, making it the most powerful in recorded observational history. The biggest solar storm in Canada's history came in March 1989, when a CME struck Earth's magnetic field, sending electric currents flowing through the rock of the Canadian Shield to the transmission lines of Hydro-Quebec. The resulting province-wide blackout left millions of residents in the darkness and cold for nine hours. "That's the strongest event that we've had in this technological age," Fiori said, "and it's really what we've used as a benchmark to make sure that systems are safe." Other notable solar storms include one in 1909 that disrupted telegraph lines across the U.S., and one in 1967 that jammed radar systems operating in Alaska, Greenland and the U.K. amid mounting tensions between NATO and the Soviet Union, briefly sparking concerns of a Soviet attack. It's been more than two decades since a solar storm caused significant power fluctuations and communications disruptions, but in an increasingly technological world, it's something space forecasters are keeping an eye on to stay a step ahead of the next solar storm. For the next year or so, solar flares and solar activity will be higher than usual, as we're within the period of solar maximum, the peak of the sun's 11-year cycle. "We do have a lot of different technologies that are sensitive to space weather. Since 1989, for example, we've become much more dependent on GNSS or GPS for navigation. And that can be impacted by space weather," Fiori said. She added that Canada, due to its proximity to the northern magnetic pole, is more vulnerable to space weather. "But it also means that we're in the very best place to observe it so that we can build accurate forecasts."
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The Most Violent Solar Storm Ever Detected Hit Earth in 12350 BCE
A huge cosmic event some 14,300 years ago was so powerful, it left a discernible mark on our planet. In the partially fossilized trunks of ancient trees, and excavated cores of millennia-old ice, scientists have found evidence that suggests some sort of massive space event took place in around 12350 BCE. New work using a specially developed climate-chemistry model called SOCOL:14C-Ex clinches it. The culprit behind the huge particle influx during that time was a giant event from the Sun, pelting Earth with particles in the biggest geomagnetic storm we have on record. "Compared to the largest event of the modern satellite era – the 2005 particle storm – the ancient 12350 BCE event was over 500 times more intense, according to our estimates," says space physicist Kseniia Golubenko of the University of Oulu in Finland. A geomagnetic storm is an event usually associated with a coronal mass ejection, a huge expulsion of billions of tons of plasma, enmeshed with a magnetic field, from the Sun. When this particle influx slams into Earth, all sorts of wacky shenanigans can ensue. The aurora australis and borealis are the most well-known manifestations of a geomagnetic storm, but such disturbances can get dangerous when mixed with our technology. The most famous example is the Carrington Event of September 1859, in which currents in the atmosphere then ran along Earth's surface, wiping out telegraph systems around the world, triggering fires and mayhem. Another big geomagnetic storm in 1989 saw multiple power grid failures and disruptions. We know that the Sun is capable of much bigger outbursts, though. But because human records of solar storms are patchy at best, it's difficult to gauge just how strong a geomagnetic storm can get. However, one quirk of geomagnetic storms is that they temporarily increase the amount of the radioactive carbon-14 that's constantly raining down on Earth. This radiocarbon is produced in the upper atmosphere when cosmic particles, like the particles belched out by the Sun, interact with atmospheric particles. Carbon-14 is incorporated into organisms, such as trees and animals, and because it decays at a known rate, scientists can use it to determine when these organisms lived. Here's where it gets interesting: a huge spike in carbon-14 in a tree ring can be used not just to detect, but narrow down the date of a geomagnetic storm. This is what researchers did to identify a potential giant geomagnetic storm 14,000 years ago, as explained in a 2023 paper. Other such events have been traced to around 994 CE, 660 BCE, 5259 BCE, and 7176 BCE, with the most recent (and previously largest known) being 774 CE. The 12350 BCE event, however, is different from the others, which is why the team needed to design a model to understand it better. "The ancient event in 12350 BCE is the only known extreme solar particle event outside of the Holocene epoch, the past ~12,000 years of stable warm climate," Golubenko says. "Our new model lifts the existing limitation to the Holocene and extends our ability to analyze radiocarbon data even for glacial climate conditions." The researchers tested their model on the 774 CE event, and then, once it returned accurate results, used it to analyze the data from 12,350 BCE. This allowed them to probe the strength, timing, and terrestrial impact of the storm, confirming that it was the biggest solar particle storm that we know about. "This event establishes a new worst-case scenario," Golubenko says. "Understanding its scale is critical for evaluating the risks posed by future solar storms to modern infrastructure like satellites, power grids, and communication systems." The research has been published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Dark Matter Could Be Evolving, And The Implications Are Profound Kosmos 482's Final Descent Captured in One Haunting Image Sun Unleashes Most Powerful Flare We've Seen in 2025
Forbes
05-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
In Photos: Giant Sunspot Appears On The Sun — How To Safely See It
A giant black spot has appeared on the sun's disk — and you'll need to go find an old pair of solar eclipse glasses to safely see it with your own eyes. At over 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) wide, the sunspot — called AR 4079 by solar scientists who track the sun each day — is the largest of 2025 so far. Earth's diameter is 7,926 miles (12,756 kilometers). The sun only occupies half a degree of the sky, so trying to find it while wearing solar eclipse glasses is not easy. Here's how to see the sunspot: Note: it is dangerous to look at the sun through anything other than a pair of certified safe solar filters (solar eclipse glasses) bearing the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard. Don't make your own, don't use sunglasses and don't use welder's glass (sometimes the latter is safe, but only if it's Grade 13 or 14, which is hard to check). The American Astronomical Society keeps a list of Suppliers of Safe Solar Filters & Viewers. A sunspot is a magnetic disturbance on the sun's surface. Appearing on the sun's visible surface — called the photosphere — they're cooler regions on the sun caused by a concentration of magnetic field lines, according to NASA. The "AR" in a sunspot's name stands for active region because sunspots are areas of intense and complex magnetic fields and the source of solar eruptions — solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Solar flares are intense blasts of radiation that travel at light speed, while CMEs are vast clouds of charged particles that travel more slowly but are a major cause of geomagnetic storms on Earth. CMEs are frequently the root cause of displays of the northern and southern lights. In the wake of last May 10-11's displays of aurora — the most intense since 2003, according to NASA — scientists announced the arrival of the solar maximum period. However, there is a good chance of an extended period of solar activity through 2025. The number of sunspots wax and wane according to where the sun is in its solar cycle, which is, on average, 11 years long. The sun is currently at solar maximum, meaning the sunspots are bigger and more numerous than usual. AR 4079 is about half the size of the sunspot seen during the "Carrington Event" in early September 1859. The landmark solar event saw astronomer Richard C. Carrington observe the most powerful solar flare ever recorded, which later created auroras down to the tropics. The giant sunspot comes days after the world's largest solar telescope published its first spectacular image of the sun. A new instrument on the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii, captures sunlight signals over a narrow range of frequencies, allowing it to map magnetic fields, solar flares and plasma at new levels of detail. Its new image revealed a cluster of sunspots covering 241 million square miles of the sun's surface. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
