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Dazzling aurorae filled the skies. Birds thought it was morning, people thought the world was ending. The telegraph didn't work. But strangely, sometimes the telegraph operators could send messages without a power supply. This was the Carrington Event, the biggest solar storm ever recorded.

Carrington Event – Biggest Solar Storm on Record

The British Geological Survey has produced a poster of the magnetic traces from Greenwich Observatory from August 28 to September 8, 1859. You can see evidence of the solar storm that began on August 28, preceding the Carrington Event. It wasn't as strong a storm as that of September 1-2. But taken altogether it must have been quite a week!

I came across a modern picture of the hill where Richard Carrington lived and built his observatory. His home was called the Dome and the apartment building that replaced the Victorian buildings is also called The Dome.

An international team of scientists discovered that solar storms can be much more powerful and devastating than we've previously thought. There is evidence of two extreme storms over a thousand years ago - it comes from ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica

Solar storms have caused major power outages, and led to satellites and communication systems break downs. But it seems that there can be solar storms much stronger than the ones we've experienced since the mid-20th century. It's not clear how they compare with the Carrington Event, but one of the researchers said, "These solar storms by far exceeded any known events observed by instrumental measurements on Earth. The findings should lead to a reassessment of the risks associated with solar storms."

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