As if we didn’t have enough of the heat wave hitting the Earth, the sun has gotten pissed off. Early last Tuesday, sunspot AR3363, southwest of our starproduced a solar flare that scientists refer to by the not sobering name of cannibaland the most imminent forecast is that there will be more.
To the naked eye, it looks like an explosion on the surface of the sun that raises a gigantic cloud, or an arm of light that wants to escape from our star. Technically, it is a coronal mass ejection, solar plasma that travels with the solar winds at a speed of 800 kilometers per second, charged with enough energy, according to NASA, to power the US for a million years. The plasma ends up crashing into our planet in a matter of days, causing a geomagnetic storm, which is the main reason why we have the sun under constant surveillance by the scientific community.
Last Sunday three flares were detected that caused radio blackouts. Tuesday’s cannibal flare, which is actually two overlapping flares, was rated low intensity, and caused northern lights and temporary failures in high-frequency communications in arctic latitudes, and probably also in some satellites.
The Earth has a natural defense shield, our magnetic field, which deflects this electric wind towards the poles. In fact, according to NASA, they are not harmful to humans that we stepped on the earth, something that astronauts cannot say, nor can passengers on flights that pass near the poles can receive small doses of radiation.
The extreme consequences of these storms would be blackouts, and the collapse of network systems such as the fall of the internet, already predicted on many occasions each time these events occur. Luckily the last time an event of this type occurred there was not even internet, it was the September 1, 1859and scientists call it evento Carrington because that was the name of the British astronomer who recorded it, and who put the telegraph network out of service for 14 hours and caused aurora borealis at unlikely points on Earth.