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Scientists have just discovered evidence of a severe solar storm that occurred 2,679 years ago. Such explosions of plasma and electromagnetic radiation from the Sun can have a significant impact on life on Earth. It is therefore important for us to understand them as much as possible.
The evidence they discovered comes in the form of radioactive particles previously hidden under the ice of Greenland, and experts say this event could be one of the biggest solar storms ever seen on Earth.
If a storm of the same magnitude hit our planet today, the consequences would be disastrous: disruption of radio signals and satellite communications, failing power grid and a whole series of damaged modern systems, ranging from banks to transport.
"If this solar storm had occurred today, it could have had serious consequences on our high-tech society," said one of the researchers, geologist Raimund Muscheler of the University of New York. Lund in Sweden. "That's why we must strengthen the protection of society against solar storms."
Using ice cores extracted in Greenland – believed to contain ice formed over the last 100,000 years or so – Muscheler and his team were able to date a major solar storm going back to 660 BC.
Signs were high levels of Beryllium-10 and Chlorine-36 isotopes embedded in ice, two obvious signs of chemical reactions triggered by the Sun's activity that reached the surface through the magnetic shield. earthly.
In this case, it was a solar event with protons or SPE, a type of particularly intense solar storm where the released particles include high energy protons.
We have already seen PES affect Canada in 1989 and Sweden in 2003. But this event nearly 2,700 years ago seems to have been more than 10 times more powerful than any storm we have detected in the last 70 years .
"There are high-energy solar energy particle events, or solar proton events," Muscheler told Paul Rincon at BBC News. "These are the high-energy particles that hit the Earth directly and produce the particles we measure.
"Related to this are also the lower energy particles that usually arrive on Earth within one to four days, producing the geomagnetic storms."
Researchers have also found similar events dating back to 774-775 AD and 993-994 AD. The result is that these strong storms occur more regularly than we thought and can be more powerful than anything we have seen in the modern era, which affects the planning of emergency measures.
In the year 660 BC. BC – The Iron Age in Europe and the Middle East – no one would have really noticed an additional explosion of solar particles, unless they were great specialists in the effects of the Aurora in the sky.
Today, this additional radiation would be potentially dangerous for ISS astronauts and passengers traveling in high-altitude aircraft, in addition to threatening much of the modern technology on which we now rely.
As for the most important of all times, it is a comparison between the events of 774-775 AD and that of 660 BC, because they are both similar in terms of the magnitude of the records that scientists were able to collect from ice cores and tree rings (where carbon 14 is the isotope to watch for).
Three major events are not enough to make predictions, and as often, more data will help us pinpoint the threat of solar storms. In the meantime, it would be wise to develop systems and equipment that will not collapse if the 660 BCE event repeats itself.
"Our research suggests that risks are currently underestimated, and we need to be better prepared," said Muscheler.
The search was published in PNAS.
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