A new study shows that Earth was nine days away from suffering the effects from a massive solar burst.

Scientists say the burst from the sun would have at least matched the severity of the 1859 Carrington Event which blew out the telegraph system across the entire United States.

Berkeley research physicist Janet Luhmann, who led the study, said that the burst would have had more impact than the 1859 event.

“Had it hit Earth, it probably would have been like the big one in 1859, but the effect today, with our modern technologies, would have been tremendous,” Luhmann said.

The coronal mass ejection that burst from the sun on July 23, 2012 would have been aimed directly at Earth if the event happened nine days earlier.  The blast of southward magnetic fields would clash with the Earth’s northward field, causing electrical transformers to burst into flames, disabling many older satellites, damaging electronic devices on Earth and causing problems for the GPS system.

The scientists hope by being able to study the results of the 2012 burst they can better predict future events.