Video | Could a solar flare cause a blackout and send us back to the Middle Ages?

This year we will reach solar maximum and it is possible that a large solar flare will take down the power grid, communications satellites and send us back to the Middle Ages.

You may read some news like this throughout this year.

The first class X solar flare of 2024, the most intense category that exists, was recorded a few days ago and, indeed, these phenomena will be more frequent as we approach solar maximum.

These flares are produced by the Sun's magnetic fields, which are most intense in sunspots, dark areas the size of the Earth.

But they are unlikely to return us to the Middle Ages.

The flares launch charged particles towards our planet at 400 kilometers per second that can pose a threat to electronic devices, electrical networks or satellites.

If they are intense enough, which is something that can happen once a century.

Meanwhile, its most visible aspect is the beautiful northern lights.

The most intense phenomenon of this type recorded in modern times is the Carrington event, named after the astronomer who identified it.

In the late summer of 1859, a solar storm hit the Earth and left thousands of kilometers of telegraph line, the communication system of the time, fried.

In a world with more than 8,000 satellites and an extensive electrical network, the impact would be much greater than then.

However, there are prediction systems, a bit like meteorological systems, that can warn us that this storm is coming here, because it takes three days from when the solar flares are seen.

With that notice it would be possible to protect the technology to reduce damage.

But the Carrington event is not the strongest that can come from the Sun. In 2012, Japanese astrophysicist Fusa Miyake discovered a sharp increase in carbon 14, twenty times higher than the normal accumulation, in a red cedar in the year 774. That peak has subsequently been found in trees around the world and has been associated with an increase in beryllium in Antarctic ice in the same year.

This phenomenon has been associated with something similar to a solar superstorm that launched a large number of cosmic particles towards Earth.

Since then, more Miyake events have been found, all predating electronics, much more powerful than the Carrington event and which would have catastrophic consequences for hypertechnological humanity.

Scientists still don't know how often they happen or if they really originate from a solar storm.

They also do not know exactly when the imminent solar maximum will occur, but they are working to understand it and avoid an unlikely but possible event that would return us, even if only for a few weeks, to the Middle Ages.

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