We May Be Overdue For A Really Big Solar Storm

WAITING FOR THE NEXT CARRINGTON EVENT: In Sept. 1859, the sun unleashed a series of solar flares so powerful that telegraph offices caught fire and auroras were seen as far south as Cuba. Known as the Carrington Event, this iconic solar storm is a touchstone for discussions of extreme space weather. Could it happen again? In a paper published back in 2018, researchers from the University of Birmingham use Extreme Value Theory to estimate the average time between “Carrington-like flares.“ Their best answer: ~100 years. In other words, we may be overdue for a really big storm. Read the original research here: Thanks for watching! #Carringtonevent #solarflare #superstorm Images credit: AIA/SDO, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Frederic Edwin Church’s 1865 painting “Aurora Borealis - Public Domain Music credit: YouTube Audio Library