https://ca.news.yahoo.com/nasa-world...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