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A new study reveals that a gigantic solar storm hit the Earth about 2,600 years ago, about 10 times more than any recorded solar storm these days.
These findings suggest that such explosions regularly return to the Earth's history and could wreak havoc if they should now occur, given the world's dependence on electricity.
The sun can bombard the Earth with explosions of highly energetic particles known as solar proton events. These "proton storms" can endanger people and electronics, both in space and in the air. [Top 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]
In addition, when a proton storm strikes the Earth's magnetosphere – the shell of electrically charged particles – it is trapped by the Earth's magnetic field. When the solar storm disrupts the magnetosphere of our planet, we call it a geomagnetic storm that can devastate the planet's electrical networks. For example, in 1989, a solar flare cleared the entire Canadian province of Quebec in a matter of seconds, damaging processors as far away as New Jersey and almost completely shutting down American power grids from the central Atlantic to the northwestern part of the country. Peaceful.
In the design of this artist's terrestrial magnetosphere, the orange and blue lines represent the opposite north and south polarity of the Earth's field lines.
Credit: Greg Shirah and Tom Bridgman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Scientists have analyzed proton storms for less than a century. As such, they may not have a good estimate of the frequency of extreme solar flares or their actual power.
"Today, we have a lot of infrastructure that could be badly damaged, and we travel in the air and in space, where we are much more exposed to high energy radiation," he said. to Raimund Muscheler, lead author of the study, a physicist specializing in the environment Science Live.
According to a study conducted in 2013 by Lloyd 's of London, the so – called Carrington event of 1859 would have released about 10 times more energy than the one that caused the power outage in Quebec in 1989, making it the most powerful geomagnetic storm known. Worse still, the world has become much more dependent on electricity since the Carrington event, and if such a powerful storm were to occur, the blackouts could last weeks, months or even years, the services public struggling to replace key elements of power grids, the 2013 study found.
Today, researchers have discovered that radioactive atoms trapped in ice in Greenland suggest that a huge storm of protons hit the Earth around 660 BC. BC, a storm that could thwart the event Carrington.
Previous research has shown that extreme proton storms can generate radioactive atoms of beryllium 10, chlorine 36 and carbon 14 in the atmosphere. Evidence of such events is detectable in dark circles and ice cores, which could give scientists a way to investigate ancient solar activity.
Scientists examined ice from two core samples taken in Greenland. They reported a peak of Beryllium-10 and Radioactive Chlorine-36 about 2,610 years ago. This is consistent with previous work examining tree rings that suggested a carbon peak 14 at about the same time. [Photos: Craters Hidden Beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet]
Earlier research had detected two other ancient proton storms in the same way, one concerning about 993-994 and the other around 774-775. The latter is the largest solar flare known to date.
With regard to the number of high energy protons, the 660 BC. and the events of the year 774 to 775 are about 10 times larger than the strongest proton storm observed today, occurring in 1956, said Muscheler. The event of the year 993-994 was two to three times smaller than the other two old storms, he added.
It is still unclear how these ancient proton storms compare to the Carrington event, as estimates of the proton number of the Carrington event are highly uncertain, said Muscheler. However, if these old solar explosions "were related to a geomagnetic storm, I guess they would exceed the worst scenarios that often rely on Carrington-like events," he noted.
Although additional research is needed to see how much damage such blowouts could inflict, these works suggest that "these huge events are a recurring feature of the sun – we now have three major events over the past 3,000 years," said Muscheler. "There may be more than we have not discovered yet."
"We have to systematically look for these events in the environmental archives to get a good idea of the statistics, that is, the risks, the events and the smaller events," Muscheler added. "The challenge will be finding the little ones that are probably still beyond anything we've measured over the last few decades."
Scientists detailed their findings online today (March 11) in the Proceedings Journal of the National Academy of Sciences.
Originally published on Science live.
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