Earth ‘dodged’ massive solar magnetic bullet
20 March 2014 5:50 AM IST
An enormous magnetic eruption at a speed of 3,000 kilometres per second — sufficient to girdle the Earth five times in one minute - the likes of which has not been seen in the past 150 years — almost hit earth in 2012.
But as it tore through Earth’s orbit, releasing energy equivalent to that of about a billion hydrogen bombs, good fortune prevailed on the blue planet which was placed on the other side of the sun at
the time.
Had the eruption come nine days earlier, it would have hit Earth, potentially destroying our electrical grid, disabling satellites and GPS and disrupting our increasingly electronic lives wreaking havoc and ‘causing fireworks’.
Scientists confirmed on Wednesday that a fierce solar eruption known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) blasted away from the sun at sent a pulse of magnetized plasma barrelling into space and through Earth’s orbit.
The solar bursts would have enveloped Earth in magnetic fireworks matching the largest magnetic storm ever reported on Earth, the so-called Carrington event of 1859.
But as it tore through Earth’s orbit, releasing energy equivalent to that of about a billion hydrogen bombs, good fortune prevailed on the blue planet which was placed on the other side of the sun at
the time.
Had the eruption come nine days earlier, it would have hit Earth, potentially destroying our electrical grid, disabling satellites and GPS and disrupting our increasingly electronic lives wreaking havoc and ‘causing fireworks’.
Scientists confirmed on Wednesday that a fierce solar eruption known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) blasted away from the sun at sent a pulse of magnetized plasma barrelling into space and through Earth’s orbit.
The solar bursts would have enveloped Earth in magnetic fireworks matching the largest magnetic storm ever reported on Earth, the so-called Carrington event of 1859.
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