The Sun is gearing up for its solar maximum in just a couple of years and that means more frequent and powerful solar flares. Which has a lot of people wondering, if there was a powerful solar storm and our planet happened to be in the way, how much time would we have to prepare?
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00:00The sun is gearing up for its solar maximum in just a couple of years, and that means
00:07more frequent and more powerful solar flares.
00:10Which has a lot of people wondering, if there was a powerful solar storm and our planet
00:14happened to be in the way, how much time would we have to prepare?
00:17Well according to NASA, only about 30 minutes.
00:20They're currently developing an AI warning system, one that can recognize the light coming
00:24from the sun and identify it as an ejection event.
00:27Of course light travels much faster than whatever material is headed towards our planet,
00:31meaning we can see that before the material arrives at our atmosphere's door.
00:35This is important as ejection events can greatly impact humanity's technology and communications.
00:39The most extreme solar ejection interference ever recorded on Earth actually happened over
00:43a century and a half ago.
00:45It's called the Carrington event, and it led to electrical issues and even the destruction
00:49of some communications infrastructure.
00:51Today our reliance on technology has increased exponentially, meaning a massive solar ejection,
00:56one that could even knock satellites out of the sky, could drastically change our lives.