New research from experts at the University of Colorado – Boulder found that a solar storm like the one spotted in another star system recently would send Earth back to the Dark Ages.
A solar storm could send Earth back to the Dark Ages
Astronomers found the solar storm when they were observing the star called EK Draconis, which catapulted massive amounts of energy and charged particles into space. The event was far more powerful than anything observed by astronomers in our own solar system.
Some suns have solar storms, technically referred to as coronal mass ejections, on a regular basis. These ejections consist of clouds of plasma or extremely hot particles that shoot through space at millions of miles an hour. If a solar storm were to hit Earth, it could send us back to the Dark Ages by frying satellites orbiting around the plant and shutting down the planet’s power grids, plunging cities into darkness.
Bad news for Earth
According to the research, solar storms could get even worse. Using telescopes both on the ground and in space, the researchers studied EK Draconis, which appears to be a young version of our sun. They watched a cloud of plasma ejected from the sun in April 2020. The cloud’s mass was more than 10 times larger than the most powerful coronal mass ejection ever recorded from a star similar to our sun.
The astronomers warned that such an ejection could theoretically occur on our sun, which would be bad news for Earth.
