Science

The Carrington Event: Will We Have Another?

The world was a very different place in 1859. There were no motorized vehicles, only horse-drawn carriages, trains pulled by coal-fired steam engines, and ships powered by coal-fired turbines. Airplanes were still a pipe dream. As far as electronics went, there weren't any. Ben Franklin's work at Menlo Park didn't begin until 1876, and Nikola Tesla was only three years old in 1859. Long-distance communication happened by telegraph, when it happened at all.

Which is why the Carrington Event caused only a minor stir, and has largely been forgotten by history. But were it to happen again, the results for us would be disastrous.

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