On September 1 and 2, 1859, the aurora, which is a polar latitude phenomenon, could be seen in almost all parts of the world. The compass failed, and the telegraph network throughout the northern hemisphere shorted.
This time, natural phenomena it became known as the Carrington Event and became one of the largest solar storms. The danger again, the sun can create solar flare or coronal mass ejection (CME) that could hit Earth and our technology. How did this actually happen and what are the implications for Earth?
1. The sun is the closest star to Earth
The sun makes up about 99.8 percent of all matter in our solar system, and converts four million tons of that matter into energy every second. The energy released is about 276 watts of energy per square meter. The sun also has ‘weather’, and the Carrington Event is closely tied to it. Once every 11 years solar activity increases, followed by a decrease.
Cited page Space.com, the Sun’s maximum is indicated by the increasing appearance of sunspots. These black patches create bulges, curvature of plasma connecting individual sunspots, to solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The next solar maximum will occur in 2024.
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2. The mass throwing of the corona caused the Carrington Event
A coronal mass ejection erupts from the sun on August 31, 2012. (doc. unsplash.com/NASA)–
Term ‘solar flare’ and ‘coronal mass ejection’ is a different phenomenon. Solar flare (Sun flare) is a burst of electromagnetic energy (visible light, X-rays, etc.) from the Sun, while coronal mass ejection (corona mass ejection) is an explosion of particles from the sun’s corona. Both occur when the magnetic field lines in the Sun’s lower corona are twisted, torn apart, and then reconnected.
Launch NOAA, when these pathways reconnect, they produce powerful explosions in the form of solar flares, CMEs, or both. CME can hit Earth from any direction within 15 hours. CME throws billions of tons of charged protons and electrons that contain a magnetic field into the solar system. As explained Forbes, if the CME and Earth are magnetically anti-aligned, it is like two magnets colliding with each other. Well, this is what happened in 1859.
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3. The Carrington Event
On September 1, 1859, Richard Carrington, an amateur astronomer who observed the sun’s highly active surface until August 1859, reported CME Research Institute. It was Carrington who first recorded the massive solar flare that was the precursor to the coronal mass ejection. In just 17.6 hours, the CME streaked across the 93 million miles between the Sun and Earth, and the Carrington Event began.
The compass suddenly drifted wildly north, wreaking havoc on the ship’s navigation. Telegraph equipment short circuit, report Wired. Engineers who monitor engines even see sparks in many of the equipment. This lasts for 2 days. Scientists now know that the Carrington Event was so powerful, it triggered a geomagnetic storm in Earth’s magnetosphere. The Carrington incident brought the power of 10 billion atomic bombs
Also read: Lunar eclipse is a sign that the earth is not flat, here are the facts
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4. How did the damage occur?
telegraph pole in San Francisco, California in 1859 (doc. nasa.gov)–
The Carrington event could have happened because Earth was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got the full brunt of the so-called History.com as the ‘perfect solar storm’.
Due to the massive overload of power, the wires started to melt, the telegraph caught fire, and there was so much ambient auroral current. Basically, electrical technology is running out of power.
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5. The aurora that occurred in the Carrington Event
Aurora illustration (unsplash.com/Joshua Earle)–
The aurora produced by the Carrington Event is very bright, even at night. In Australia, a writer for Perth Daily News recounts that ‘beautiful scenery presented itself, light of every color emanating from the southern sky’.
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In the Rocky Mountains, the aurora emits so much light. As a result, the miners got up a few hours early, thought it was dawn, and made breakfast.
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6. What if the Carrington Incident happened again in this era?
In 1859, electric power was still very new and was largely confined to the telegraph system. Unlike the case with today’s society which is much more dependent on electricity and electronics. The internet will stop, telephones will die, electrical fires, and electronic equipment will short circuit. Control of the satellite troops in orbit will be lost. Computers, supply chains, stock exchanges, and nuclear power plants will come to a halt.
Talk with CNET In 2018, Francis O’Sullivan, director of research for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative, explained that events like this could affect bank accounts and threaten national defense. A study in 2013 estimated the potential loss at $2.6 trillion in the United States alone. ScienceAlert even estimated 20 trillion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 284 billion.
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7. The solar storm of 1859 happened and will happen again
Peristiwa Carrington 1859 (doc. Nasa.gov)–
Coronal mass ejections (solar storms) are actually a fairly common phenomenon. The lower CME hit Earth in 1921, 1960, 1989, and 2010. The 1989 CME shut down the power grid in the Canadian province of Quebec for nine hours. According to a NASA article, a large CME, equal to 1859, was released from the Sun in 2012 and missed Earth in nine days.
Also, there were direct attacks long before 1859. Using tree ring data and isotopic evidence taken from Greenland ice cores, the scientists found that a large CME swept through the Earth in 774 and 993. Another major CME occurred in 1770, creating aurora to Timor Leste.
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8. Solar storms continue to be monitored
The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DISCOVR) (dok. nasa.gov)–
It is estimated that a Carrington-type CME hits Earth every 150 years. The space agencies of a number of countries have fleets of satellites that observe the Sun. NASA formed the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to observe space weather. In addition, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DISCOVR) will be the first to confirm a CME attack on Earth.
A collaboration between European and American space agencies, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was formed to study the Sun from the corona to the core. The satellite duo, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) specifically observes the flow of energy radiating from the Sun to Earth. Europe and the United States, Solar Orbiter (SolO) studies how the Sun creates and controls the Sun’s heliosphere.
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9. What could the government do if the Carrington Incident occurred?
In 2011, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), together with the US Department of Homeland Security released a risk assessment study in the Carrington redux case. If a Carrington-level CME strikes, disaster mitigation is necessary. Installing more durable electrical equipment can be recommended.
Unfortunately, the OECD report does not provide a solution or a plan for tackling CME. Most likely, the government will not only do power outages nationally, but also worldwide.
Read also: Check the facts about the news of the sunrise from the west, this is what NASA says
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10. CME doesn’t just happen to the sun
illustration depicting coronal mass ejection, or CME (doc. nasa.gov)–
In 2019, researchers had the first strong evidence that CMEs occurred in stars other than the Sun. According to a post on the website NASA, the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite detected a CME originating from OU Andromedae, a star about 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda.
The Chandra satellite found that CME OU Andromedae threw two trillion pounds of launched material into space. It is about 10,000 times larger than the most massive CME the Sun has ever produced.
In this era of rapidly developing technology, it is very possible that an event like Carrington could end life in the world. It might force us to live in an era where humans no longer rely on advanced technology.
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