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The Deadly Threat That Lurks Beyond the Earth
Last time we ventured into deep space we got lucky. Next time we may not.
The night of August 4, 1972, was marked by strange events. In England bright lights appeared in the sky, strong enough to cast shadows in the streets. Power grids all over America recorded strange fluctuations, threatening to cause a large-scale blackout. Along the Vietnamese coast thousands of sea mines, deployed in the war, suddenly erupted in terrifying explosions.
Around the planet scientific instruments recorded equally bizarre things. Observers in Guam spotted a wave of magnetic energy racing across the planet at tremendous speeds —travelling more than three thousand kilometres every second. Satellites failed; their power systems unable to cope with surging currents. A neutron counter in the Vela monitoring system overflowed, triggering fears of a nuclear explosion.
The cause, fortunately, was not an atom bomb. The magnetic storm that swept the Earth in 1972 came from the Sun, a massive outburst of stellar material directed right at our planet. The disturbances it created wrecked havoc on our wired-up world, threatening the grids and technology we rely on.
Luckily, thanks to a fortunate alignment of the Earth’s magnetic shield, the consequences were minor. Had the…
