An impressive and unique image of the biggest Solar flare already captured Solar Orbiter Probe, the result of a joint project between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration), just ten days ago. The image managed to capture the entire solar disk even during its close pass to the Sun.
This solar flame spread for millions of kilometers in space and did not come towards the Earth. But when news of such events comes in, one question always remains: What if it were headed towards our planet, what would happen? Will it then be the end of terrestrial life?
Don’t worry, it isn’t. It is true that a more intense solar storm can affect the Earth more severely, but according to the researchers, this is not so easy to happen.
What will be the effects?
A normal storm can cause many inconveniences such as floods causing the most damage to our infrastructure: demolishing bridges, ripping asphalt, causing landslides, etc.
If Earth were to be hit by a major solar storm, the first thing to hit would be our technology, plunging the entire planet into darkness and shutting down the entire world’s internet.
With the extensive electrical and telecommunications networks on which we depend for almost everything, damage caused by an event like last week would cause satellites, systems like GPSChanges in telephone lines, cable TV and even air routes cause trillions of dollars in damage to the world economy.
solar cycle
Solar eruptions have been recorded by researchers for more than a century, but their cause is still unknown.
All information about them suggests that these “explosions” are directly related to disruptions in the Sun’s magnetic field, which fluctuate during solar cycles.
The Sun has an 11-year cycle, with periodic changes in its magnetic activity – sometimes more active and sometimes less.
Feather solar storm These instabilities in the magnetic field and the subsequent emission of solar plasma are caused by this.
In 2019, the Sun began its new cycle and, according to astronomers, the maximum solar activity of this cycle is predicted to occur in the middle of the year 2025.
history of solar storms
In 2012, a strong solar storm nearly hit Earth, putting the entire electrical grid system at serious risk and threatening to “return contemporary civilization to the 18th century,” as NASA reported at the time.
The most severe solar storm ever recorded was in 1859—known as the “Carrington event”—which affected telegraph networks around the world, electrocuting some operators and setting post offices on fire.
