The Carrington Event And Starfish Prime

Solar To The Max

https://www.history.com/news/a-perfect-solar-superstorm-the-1859-carrington-event

From the History.com site linked above in bold type:

On the morning of September 1, 1859, amateur astronomer Richard Carrington ascended into the private observatory attached to his country estate outside of London. After cranking open the dome’s shutter to reveal the clear blue sky, he pointed his brass telescope toward the sun and began to sketch a cluster of enormous dark spots that freckled its surface. Suddenly, Carrington spotted what he described as “two patches of intensely bright and white light” erupting from the sunspots. Five minutes later the fireballs vanished, but within hours their impact would be felt across the globe.

That night, telegraph communications around the world began to fail; there were reports of sparks showering from telegraph machines, shocking operators and setting papers ablaze. All over the planet, colorful auroras illuminated the nighttime skies, glowing so brightly that birds began to chirp and laborers started their daily chores, believing the sun had begun rising.

We've all seen pictures of prominences on the sun – great arches connecting two points on the surface with glowing plasma moving along them. The arches are formed by the shape of the magnetic field, but the magnetic field can twist and turn. When it does so and two points on the same arch come into contact the plasma in the arch is ejected into space rather than returning to the sun – a coronal mass ejection. They happen frequently, with only a fraction actually hitting the Earth, but the Carrington event not only hit the Earth but was event was an especially severe example.

If one should occur now it would be worse than it was in 1859. Much of the electrical grid would be severely damaged and people would be living without electrical power for some time. Modern cities are unlivable long term without power.

It probably wouldn't stop there. The Earth's magnetic field is produced by electrical currents deep inside the planet, so energy from the sun could couple into the Earth's interior by the electomagnetic waves penetrating into the Earth's interior, and this might trigger earthquakes in regions where there is lot of stored up energy at the fault lines. Yellowstone volcano and the New Madrid Fault come to mind.

(If anyone knows about earthquakes after the Carrington Event, please post in the comments.)

Starfish Prime

https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2022/07/08/starfish-prime-the-first-accidental-geomagnetic-storm/

From the above spaceweatherarchive.com site, in bold type:

On July 9, 1962, the US military detonated a thermonuclear warhead 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean–a test called “Starfish Prime.” What happened next surprised everyone. Witnesses from Hawaii to New Zealand reported auroras overhead, magnificent midnight “rainbow stripes” that tropical sky watchers had never seen before. Radios fell silent, then suddenly became noisy as streetlights went dark in Honolulu.

Above is the Starfish Prime nuclear explosion in outer space as seen from Hawaii. The explosion took place at an altitude of 250 miles after being launched by a Thor rocket from the Johnston Atoll test site in the Pacific Ocean, picture courtesy of Wikipedia. Although Hawaii was 900 miles away from the test site it experienced electrical damage and power outages due to the electromagnetic pulse.

During the explosion of a nuclear weapon vast quantities of high energy gamma rays are released. They swarm forth and find themselves running into electrons, thereby inducing great energy in them, sort of like a demolition derby. (Compton Effect electrons.) At near ground level they don't go very far before running into an air molecule, but at the edges of outer space they may travel some distance and, while so traveling, be forced into a spiral motion by the Earth's magnetic field, producing vast quantities of electromagnetic radiation - a sort of big radio transmitter in the sky. That electromagnetic radiation then travels to Earth and induces large electrical voltages in all manner of electrical conductors. Bummer dude.

Another link about the Starfish Prime test:

https://www.thoughtco.com/starfish-prime-nuclear-test-4151202

"I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them." ~ George Washington

With all of the depravity that has descended upon our fair land one wonders if we are not due for a Sodom and Gomorrah type event. While a small asteroid may have been adequate for Sodom and Gomorrah, the United States inhabits a much larger area.

It will be the pleasure of many to deride such a thought as unscientific gibberish which no scientist would accept, to which I reply, I am a scientist. By the time you reach my age you realize that if you don't accept the existence of higher powers with an associated moral order you are just whistling in the dark; ignore it at your peril. (Apologies to those whistling in the dark.) In the upcoming US election, be sure to vote in favor of the moral order.

"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage...Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe." ~ James Madison

Stay Brave, Stay Free