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Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

phys.org

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Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#71

Post by TeMPOraL »

btilly wrote: post #56
nine_k wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half of the Earth will be unaffected by the flare. Even if a storm fries all electronics on one side of Earth, there will remain devices, networks, and factories on the other side, likely somehow protected by the bulk of the planet.

Not true. The flare itself is fairly fast. But the issue is charged particles that take longer to get us. And they are spread out in time. As https://www.livescience.com/carrington-event describes, the Carrington Event was a solar flare lasting only 5 minutes. But the magnetic disturbances kept arriving over a week.

Reminds me of an episode of an old TV show (I think it was [0]), where one night, the Moon was shining unusually bright. While everyone else marveled at the beauty of the phenomenon, the protagonist is one of the few who understood that if the Moon is this bright, it means the other side of the Earth is currently on fire, and they all have but a few hours left to live.

--

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Outer_Limits_(1995...

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#73

Post by saiya-jin »

nisa wrote: post #61
baetylus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What work would we have to do to prevent such damage?

Abolish capitalism and greed. All attempts at that turned out worse through.

Abolishing part of core human nature... anything less ambitious?

Its so easy to be the doomsayer, the 'I told ya so' guy etc... It takes much more mental strength to see the forest for the trees - we humans are extremely resilient and adaptable, and even in worst situations there is always tons of natural good in our hearts. And no society didn't collapse during covid, far from it. Some folks simply mistake change with end, I guess reading too much economic news can do that to even best minds.

If current society would collapse, another would pop up instead, walking in the shoes of previous one, even if quite different. With fall of Rome its inhabitants didn't simply vanish into the air in Thanos style.

I would be much more worried about things like search for immortality since folks like Putin would burn this world completely to the ground to get and maintain it. Or properly rogue AI, if we ever achieve that.

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#74

Post by jrd259 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #71
btilly wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. The flare itself is fairly fast. But the issue is charged particles that take longer to get us. And they are spread out in time. As https://www.livescience.com/carrington-event describes, the Carrington Event was a solar flare lasting only 5 minutes. But the magnetic disturbances kept arriving over a week.

Reminds me of an episode of an old TV show (I think it was [0]), where one night, the Moon was shining unusually bright. While everyone else marveled at the beauty of the phenomenon, the protagonist is one of the few who understood that if the Moon is this bright, it means the other side of the Earth is currently on fire , and they all have but a few hours left to live. -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_…

based on Larry Niven story Inconstant Moon which won the 1972 Hugo Award for best short story.

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#75

Post by MisterTea »

nine_k wrote: post #41
MisterTea wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only hope is one can find the now obsolete computing parts needed after the last modern computer stops working. Collapse OS is a fantasy.

Half of the Earth will be unaffected by the flare. Even if a storm fries all electronics on one side of Earth, there will remain devices, networks, and factories on the other side, likely somehow protected by the bulk of the planet.

And the safe half will be brimming with plentiful retro 8-bit CPU's, all the necessary support chips, and input/output devices? I can see this being a fun "what-if" project that provides a hobby but not as a serious solution.

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#76

Post by TeMPOraL »

jrd259 wrote: post #74
TeMPOraL wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of an episode of an old TV show (I think it was [0]), where one night, the Moon was shining unusually bright. While everyone else marveled at the beauty of the phenomenon, the protagonist is one of the few who understood that if the Moon is this bright, it means the other side of the Earth is currently on fire , and they all have but a few hours left to live. -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_…

based on Larry Niven story Inconstant Moon which won the 1972 Hugo Award for best short story.

Oh. I'm adding it to my to-read queue then, and bumping Larry Niven up in the queue in general too. I've been meaning to read his works ever since I learned about Known Space / Star Trek connection.

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#77

Post by kzrdude »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #48
thejackgoode wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not if you worked on a MacBook using an ungrounded socket in Europe, for example. Forearms are not that strongly insulated

I think it's Apple's weird choice of not using a Schuko plug, opting for a two-pole connector attached to their MacBook power brick instead, even where ground is available, isn't it? I thought old school VDE rules were such that if your device has conducting parts outside, you're supposed to ground these, but I'm not an EE. Anyway the Apple power brick makes a poor impression indeed.

The plug part is still detachable, and at least previously you'd receive both a long cord with Schuko to attach there and a short plug with just two prongs. I guess the two prong thing is standard now?

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#78

Post by momirlan »

callalex wrote: post #8
dakial1 wrote: post #2

>A similar solar storm today would be catastrophic for modern technological society—potentially wiping out telecommunications and satellite systems, causing massive electricity grid blackouts, and costing us billions of pounds. I wonder if any country has a disaster recovery plan for this kind on event.

We could always fall back to running the internet with RFC1149 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1149

or smoke signals

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#79

Post by helpfulContrib »

dakial1 wrote: post #2

>A similar solar storm today would be catastrophic for modern technological society—potentially wiping out telecommunications and satellite systems, causing massive electricity grid blackouts, and costing us billions of pounds. I wonder if any country has a disaster recovery plan for this kind on event.

[dead]

Re: Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings

#80

Post by alemanek »

momirlan wrote: post #78
callalex wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could always fall back to running the internet with RFC1149 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1149

or smoke signals

No good when everything is on fire /s
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