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Experts warn that a solar storm the size of that one hundred and fifty years ago could plunge the world into chaos. Tony Spitz has the details.
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It's already happened and it could happen again.

About 2,700 years ago, a new study announced a new, exceptionally powerful solar storm. Although it has had little or no impact on the populations of today's preindustrial and pre-technological world, such an event today would lead to widespread blackouts and potentially disastrous failures. in communication and navigation.

The solar storm of 660 BC AD was about 10 times stronger than any event known in the past 70 years, said lead author of the study, Raimund Muscheler.

A solar storm of this force would constitute "a threat to modern society in terms of communication and navigation systems, space technologies and commercial aircraft operation," the study said.

Scientists studied ancient ice in Greenland for clues about previous solar storms. By examining a 100,000-year-old ice core, the researchers discovered radioactive isotopes that indicated a very powerful solar storm 2,700 years ago.

An image released by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) of NASA on April 21, 2016 shows a spectacular display of a round solar filament coming out of the Sun, in space. (Photo: NASA / SDO, EPA)

"If this solar storm had occurred today, it could have had serious effects on our high-tech society," said Muscheler, a geologist at University of Lund in Sweden.

Two examples of recent severe solar storms that caused numerous power outages occurred in Quebec (Canada) in 1989 and Malmö (Sweden) in 2003.

Solar storms consist of high energy particles released from the sun by explosions on the surface of the star. These types of storms are part of the so-called space weather, when the energy emitted by the sun interacts with the Earth's atmosphere and the geomagnetic field. Distinct but related spatial phenomena are called geomagnetic storms.

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The only visible effect on the Earth of the space weather is typically aurora borealis, or aurora borealis, across Canada and the northern United States.

Scientists said it was the third known discovery of a massive solar storm in historical times. This indicates that, if storms are rare, they are a naturally recurrent effect of solar activity.

"That's why we need to strengthen the protection of society against solar storms," ​​said Muscheler. "Our research suggests that risks are currently underestimated and we need to be better prepared."

The study was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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