The Carrington Event of 1859 (A Once in 500 Year Solar Storm)

The Carrington Event was a powerful solar storm that smashed into the earth in 1859. The solar flare was so intense that as it hit the earth's magnetic field, it caused telegraph wires to spark and turned the night sky into day.

Carrington's solar flare is but one large solar storm in a long line of potentially devastating space weather that has the potential to blast modern society back to 1859.

Should you be worried? Should you be prepared? This article covers the what, why, and how of Richard Carrington's great geomagnetic storm and what it means for our future.

What Was the Carrington Event?

The date is September 1, 1859, and a 33-year-old brewery owner with an interest in astronomy is sketching sunspots in his notebook. The man's name is Richard Carrington, and though he doesn't know it yet, he's about to make the history books.

At 11:18 that morning, Carrington is blinded by a massive blast of light that has just come from the sun. Confused, he wonders what on earth it is that he has just witnessed. But it's not until the morrow that he will begin to realize the earthly consequences of what the sun has just done to his planet.

The vast solar storm of The Carrington Event was on its way.

Carrington's Solar Storm Lights up the Sky

In the middle of that night, the sky lights up so bright that both man and fauna are tricked. In South Carolina, people begin to wake up to go to work before they realize that it is still the middle of the night. Songbirds start to greet the night with their melodies before they realize they've been duped. And even more ominously, some people throughout the planet wonder if this is the beginning of the end as colorful auroras fill the skies where northern lights have never appeared before.

The next day, telegraph operators worldwide reported an inability to transmit or receive messages. Spontaneous fires happen at these stations in multiple locations, and there are reports of numerous telegraph operators being electrocuted.

Though they do not know it, this generation has just lived through a historical event. They have lived through The Carrington Event, also known as the "Great Auroral Storm." (Source)

Here Comes the Sun

Just like the earth, the sun has magnetic fields. The sun is also filled with massive amounts of energy, however. Anybody who has a passing interest in ham radio is likely familiar with the term "sun spots." These dark regions on the sun's surface are cool areas that result from magnetic instability.

Many people don't realize, though, that sometimes these sunspots can become so volatile that they shoot electrified plasma energy out into space.

Sunspots

These sunspots are created when magnetic fields under the sun's surface combine and get all twisted and tangled together, much like headphones that have been briefly placed inside your jeans pocket.

Unlike those headphones, these sunspots usually can "untangle" themselves, resulting in nothing happening. But sometimes, they can't, and when this is the case, the sunspot "explodes," shooting out a burst of energy from the sun's surface.

What is the name of this explosion?

A coronal mass ejection.

An Infrequent Problem with Massive Consequences

Again, typically, this isn't anything to worry about. Coronal ejections happen on the sun's surface every day, and virtually all of them are either too little to cause any damage to mankind or aren't aimed at Earth.

But The Carrington Event proved that sometimes the perfect solar storm is created, and it can cause some terrific problems.

When a geomagnetic storm is large enough to potentially hit the earth and cause damage, it is known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.