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.
An asteroid is going to blow past Earth tomorrow closer than the moon’s orbit.
The asteroid, named 2014 DX110, will pass within about 9/10th of the moon’s orbit at around 33,000 miles per hour. The Virtual Telescope Project is planning to provide live online coverage of the asteroid’s passing starting around 3:30 p.m. eastern time tomorrow.
The asteroid is believed to be the size of three double decker busses.
The asteroid is classified as a “Apollo class” asteroid, meaning that it passes through the Earth’s orbit. If the asteroid were to strike Earth, it would leave a crater up to 20 times its size.
If that were to happen, it would throw enough dust into the sky that it would darken the planets for years.
NASA said that man’s concept of the galaxy was made woefully obsolete yesterday with the discovery of 715 newly discovered planets outside our solar system.
The Kepler telescope almost doubled the number of known planets in the universe. NASA scientist Jack Lissauer said that many of the planets are in multiple grouping around stars making them similar to our galaxy.
Four of those planets orbit in what NASA scientists call a “habitable zone” and believe it’s a major step toward their desire to find “Earth 2.0.” However, the scientists admitted because the planets are twice the size of Earth, they’re likely gas giants that cannot harbor life.
The Kepler telescope has suffered damage and NASA officials say it’s unlikely they will discover more planets in the same time frame.