American scientist predicted a devastating solar flare
Accidents at power lines, nuclear reactors and computer failures - the American astronomer known for his predictions issued a warning about a possible superflare on the Sun, which will cost humanity dearly.
A solar flare could be the main natural disaster that will affect earthlings in the next hundred years. These findings are presented in an article published in The Astrophysical Journal.
According to past estimates, extreme outbreaks were expected over the next 250-500 years.
Such an outbreak could disable satellite communications, electrical networks and cause huge economic losses. In their study, the scientists analyzed known data on other sun-like stars to estimate how often "superflares" could occur on the Sun. They concluded that the strongest flares on stars like the Sun occur about once every 20 million years. The strength of these flares can be 10 thousand times more powerful than ordinary flares on the Sun.
The most dangerous factor in such flares is hard ultraviolet radiation and high-energy flying particles, which can destroy the fragile ozone layer, cause mutations in DNA and destroy entire ecosystems.
However, smaller outbreaks, which have already been observed in the recent history of the Earth, can also cause considerable damage to the economy. We are talking about the so-called Carrington event - the most powerful geomagnetic storm in the history of observation, which broke out in 1859. From August 28 to September 2, numerous sunspots and flares were observed on the Sun. The British astronomer Richard Carrington observed the most powerful of them on September 1, which probably caused a large coronal mass ejection, which reached Earth in a record time of 18 hours. In those years, there were still no modern devices, but the consequences were obvious without it - from intense auroras in the equatorial region to sparkling telegraph wires.
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According to scientists, in modern realities, an event of this magnitude will cause economic damage in the amount of $ 10 trillion - accidents on power grids, failure of satellites and communications. And a flash can damage the ozone layer a little more.
However, the new forecast should be treated with a certain degree of skepticism. The discovery has two authors: Manasvi Lingam and the famous Harvard scientist Abraham Loeb, famous in astronomical circles.
Loeb is known for his catastrophic predictions about the future of the Earth.
In May of this year, Loeb and two other astrophysicists criticized the inflationary model of the universe - a popular theory today describing the physical state and expansion of the universe in the early stages of the Big Bang.
And already in the summer, in another of his work, Loeb et al. Predicted that as a result of all possible cosmic cataclysms that the Earth may undergo in the future, only tardigrades will survive.
“It is customary to perceive the sun as a friend and a source of life, but everything can turn over,” Loeb said. - It all depends on the circumstances. In those years, technology was not yet so advanced, so the damage was not significant. But if this happens in the modern world, losses could amount to trillions of dollars. A flash like Carrington today could cut off all power lines
all computers and cooling systems in nuclear reactors. Many things can be destroyed."
A month ago, in his next article, Loeb proposed a way to protect earthlings from possible superflares in the future - to place a huge wire "umbrella" between the Earth and the Sun, which will act as a saving "shield"
Solar flares are catastrophic phenomena on the surface of the Sun caused by reconnection (reconnection) of magnetic field lines, "frozen in" into the solar plasma. At some point, the extremely twisted lines of the magnetic field break off and reconnect in a new configuration, while a colossal amount of energy is released, which produces additional heating of the nearest parts of the solar atmosphere and acceleration of charged particles to near-light speeds.
