In the archives of Mexican newspapers, for the first time, they found reports on the observation of auroras during the famous "solar superstorm" in 1859.
The geomagnetic storm in early September 1859 was and remains the most powerful in the entire history of observations. The "solar superstorm" led to a colossal coronal mass ejection that quickly reached Earth's orbit and caused auroras - they were visible even in Cuba. According to some reports, they could have been observed even further south - in Mexico - but this has not yet been found reliable evidence.
In a new article published in Space Weather magazine, Mexican historian Consuelo Cuevas-Cardona and geophysicist Juan González-Esparza provide archival footage of how the people of Mexico witnessed the legendary "magnetic storm" XIX century. The authors cite translations of notes found in the newspaper La Sociedad for September 12, 1859: “By one in the morning, a red glow was lit in the constellation known as the Seven Goats (or Pleiades). It was reflected on city walls and buildings, visibly illuminating the streets. Appearing in the north, white streams of light expanded, like the rays of the Sun at dawn."
González-Esparza, Cuevas-Cardona.
According to Mexican newspapers of the time, auroras were observed in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Hidalgo, Guanajuato - scientists managed to find eyewitness accounts from a total of seven regions of the country. Due to the ongoing Mexican Civil War, academic journals did not cover this event, so reports have remained outside the field of view of historians of science.
Sergey Vasiliev