In 1859, from August 28 to September 2, we were given an important lesson about how vulnerable we are to the Sun’s power. The Carrington Event, named for the amateur astronomer who recorded it, Richard Christopher Carrington, was a coronal mass ejection: a huge burst of solar wind. When this solar storm hit the Earth’s […] … learn more→

On September 1, 1859, British astronomer Richard Carrington was sketching sunspots through a telescope when he saw a bright, oval-shaped light expanding outward from the sun. About 18 hours later, brilliant auroras colored the night sky as far south as the Caribbean, and Earth’s fledgling telegraph systems went berserk: wires melted, sparks from the wires […] … learn more→