WOW they kept this quiet....

[Cdnwolf]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/nasa-world-almost-plunged-darkness-near-miss-huge-094444073.html

Nasa has warned how civilisation was almost sent back 200 years when a huge solar storm came extremely close to hitting Earth.

The space agency said the most powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) to hit the planet for over 150 years missed Earth by just a few days.

Had it hit, it would have caused widespread power blackouts, "disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket".

"Most people wouldn't even be able to flush their toilet because urban water supplies largely rely on electric pumps," Nasa said.

The CME tore through Earth's orbit on 23 July, 2012, but Earth was not there – it had moved out of the storm's path one week earlier.

Daniel Baker, from the University of Colorado, said: "If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces. I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did. If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire

[stormlion1]

It actually was on the news, but downplayed very heavily.

[mikeo80]

You do not want to disturb the worker drones. They need to buy more fast food and the latest electronic toy from China.

My $0.02

Mike

[Schone23666]

You do not want to disturb the worker drones. They need to buy more fast food and the latest electronic toy from China.

My $0.02

Mike

Buy more.

Eat more.

Drink more.

Work more.

Obey.

Don't question authority.

No creative thought.

Marry and reproduce.

Need we say more? :evilgrin2

[stormlion1]

Yeah, but we lack the sunglasses to read the signs.

[mikeo80]

Yeah, but we lack the sunglasses to read the signs.

Don't need sunglasses. Can not read anyway. Just follow the herd of sheeples.

My $0.02

Mike

[Olefin]

Yeah, but we lack the sunglasses to read the signs.

A reference to "They Live" - one of my fave sci fi movies of all time - now thats a good way to start the day!

Stormlion add 500 rounds of M16 ammo and a few grenades to your players stash for that reference.

[unkated]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/nasa-world-almost-plunged-darkness-near-miss-huge-094444073.html

Nasa has warned how civilisation was almost sent back 200 years when a huge solar storm came extremely close to hitting Earth.

The space agency said the most powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) to hit the planet for over 150 years missed Earth by just a few days.

Beg pardon, but this was on the news back then. Must be a slow news day to dredge this back up.

CME's effect is rather like a powerful EMP blast, frying electronic equipment. Computers. phones. Stereos. TVs. refridgerators. Electronic components in modern cars. Electronic controls on everything from elevators to power plants and factories.

It caused a bit of stir in Congress, who considered the cost of doing something about it (essentially hardening the power grid and telecommunication systems to the level that the military emergency telecommunication system is hardened) vs the cost of doing nothing times x the risk of a major CME hitting earth.

There were a couple science specials that discussed this, including a Nova episode.

This was not hidden. If you missed it, you weren't paying attention.

On the other hand, this is an anti-technology force, not a person killer (directly). On the yahoo group a couple of years back, someone had suggested a CME strike as triggering event.

CMEs have hit the earth numerous times (geologically speaking), but we never noticed. The first major one noticed, the Carrington Event of 1859, was only noticed becuase this fellow Carrington noted a raft of complaints about telegraph communication problems starting on the same date, and collected
all the data, and tied it to sun observation data. A hit today would find our society depending on... more unshielded electronics than in 1859.

I used to work for a company that did atmospheric and space research, including space weather; we had a lecture from someone about the Carrington event, and used his collected data to calculate what had happened, and the size of CME.

The scientist in the article quotes a 12% chance of a CME strike in the next 10 years, based almost solely on statistics. Well, maybe. I'd have liked to have heard more on what he was basing his stats.

A Carrington event would provide interesting grist from a T2K point of view. A CME (depending on size) could ruin the electronics in a large part of the world, leaving only well-shielded military/emergency communications available to the world's more powerful governments (those who made efforts to survive a nuclear strike). Some satellites at the correct point in their orbit could survive. The effect would be rather like the backstory of Revolution (or Stirling's "Dies the Fire" series), where electricity just stopped working one day.

Uncle Ted

[pmulcahy11b]

I seem to remember posting about CMEs on the old boards at the time, because of that. It would make a nice T2K scenario.