The sun provides light, warmth and life for us on Earth, but it’s also a star—a massive ball of thermonuclear and electromagnetic fury—and it would do us all well to never forget that…
Think of [a solar flare] like a bag of mousetraps: one snaps shut and jostles the bag, making others snap over and again, rapidly discharging their stored energy in a single explosive event.
Now imagine each one of these mousetraps is the equivalent of, oh, say a few hundred million thermonuclear bombs, and you will start to get the idea of how the sweatiest sci-fi apocalypse doesn’t even come close to the power of a solar flare…
Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are also ridiculously powerful solar phenomena. If solar flares are like tornadoes—local but intense—CMEs are like far larger hurricanes. They don’t emit much visible light, but they blast upwards of a billion tons of hydrogen into space, sometimes at speeds of several thousand kilometers per second.
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And, you know, the point of the piece is that you really don’t want to be home when a big one comes calling.
April 29th, 2024 at 9:34AM
Recent article in the New Yorker by Kathryn Schulz was similarly disturbing – https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/04/what-a-major-solar-storm-could-do-to-our-planet
April 29th, 2024 at 12:35PM
Olivia: Thanks for the link. Going there now.
April 29th, 2024 at 4:36PM
Yes, a CME would be bad, but it really is so unlikely. There are so many non-solar catastrophes that are much more likely, some of which have already started. Like the collapse of all marine fisheries and global insect populations which are the basis of all terrestrial ecosystems. That’s what should be what keeps you up at night. Have a great day!
April 29th, 2024 at 5:27PM
LOL – yes, Anon, once I go down that road, I suppose I could catastrophize in many directions, natural and human-made.