What Would Happen If a Solar Storm Hit Us

This is what would happen if our planet was hit by a solar storm and ended the age of technology as we know it today:

First, let us rejoice because the greatest solar storm that struck Earth in recorded history was at a time when our human civilization was not greatly susceptible to the anger of solar radiation.

In the Carrington incident, known as the (Solar Storm of 1859), a burning mass was seen emanating from the sun towards the Earth's magnetic sheath, creating a massive magnetic storm that had not been witnessed before in modern civilization.

He collided with the geomagnetic atmosphere a barrage of charged particles that lit up the sky of the world in a phenomenon known as the (Aurora), but with strong electric currents that swept the world, the telegraph systems covering Europe and North America were cut off and sparked sparks from the telegraph devices, causing damage Some people were caught in the fire, and even some devices that were disconnected from electricity were still working and sending strangely intermittent messages!

In other words, it was chaotic technological chaos, and from a futuristic view nearly a century and a half away from the accident, you believe that what happened at that time can be easily contained now.

What would happen if a solar storm hit the Earth today?

No one knows for sure how things will go wrong, but given the frightening extent we have reached in our dependence on technological infrastructure and compared to our technological development at the time, it will certainly not be easy.

Perhaps the most important evidence lies in some strange incidents that occurred in the spring of 1989 when many solar storms hit the planet, which led to the emergence of twilight in the sky again, which led some to believe that what they see is only the foggy effects of the Third World War.

However, it was not a nuclear strike until wired signals and space communication systems were disrupted, as the Earth's magnetosphere absorbed most of the charged particles.

The greatest results were those that occurred in the city of Quebec, Canada, the electricity was cut off by six million people, and the interruption lasted for a few hours for most people, and the rest waited for days until the electricity returned to them naturally.

This type of solar storm is what terrifies scientists in the White House, a majestic solar storm that brings humans back to the Middle Ages.

Solar storms of this huge type strike the Earth nearly every 500 years, and when they strike, they are enough for communications and energy systems to go out of business around the world for days, months or even years, and don't forget GPS systems, satellites, broadcast services, the Internet, the phone, systems Transportation, drains ... etc, and we will not be able to know when the Earth will strike until hours before it happens.

This talk sounds like a film about disaster, but this fact remains and is not science fiction, as conservative estimates indicate that the amount of damage caused will reach $ 2 trillion for the first year only, and with concerted global efforts we will need nearly a decade to recover from the effects of this ordeal.

On the other side, more extreme, others estimate the size of the losses at $ 20 trillion, which will cause us to reassess the risk of destruction caused by space disasters.

Astrophysicist Abraham Loeb of Harvard University to Today Today explained that: “In the past, most attention has focused on space hazards on asteroids that might hit Earth. In the past decade, we haven't had the same technological infrastructure that we have today, and technology today Growing rapidly, so the damage will be asymmetric between past and present. ”

In the best-case scenario, the strike will only result in distortions in communications systems, but history shows that potential interference in the wrong type of technology system may have devastating consequences, such as moving the world to the brink of a nuclear war.

According to Francis O'Sullivan (Director of Energy Research at the MIT Institute) told CNN: “An event similar to what happened in Carrington may be catastrophic if it happens tomorrow, the lamps are not the only ones that will be extinguished, bank accounts will disappear, if you can imagine what would happen if the stock market stopped For a week or a month, or did the connections stop for a week or a month? You will know that this will be the greatest disaster facing the entire world. ”