Hate to burst everyone’s feel-good bubble about our “Smiling Sun,” but the truth is when the sun shows this much activity it can cause major problems on Earth. Severe geomagnetic storms can cause power outages by damaging the electrical grid. The last of these to heavily impact Earth was the 1859 Carrington Event, which sparked fires at multiple telegraph stations. A similar event in the 2020s could completely disrupt our technical society.
Hate to burst everyone’s feel-good bubble about our “Smiling Sun,” but the truth is when the sun shows this much activity it can cause major problems on Earth. Severe geomagnetic storms can cause power outages by damaging the electrical grid. The last of these to heavily impact Earth was the 1859 Carrington Event, which sparked fires at multiple telegraph stations. A similar event in the 2020s could completely disrupt our technical society.