Just a Minor Sun Explosion

In 1859, the sky turned blood-red, telegraph machines sparked and chattered, and some of their batteries exploded. Then humanity responded by building a civilization that runs on electricity, satellites, GPS, internet cables, credit cards, and cellphone towers. Great work, everyone. Ben Bradford investigates the Carrington Event — the massive solar storm that fried the technology of its time — and asks what would happen if something like it hit our much more wired world today. Was Carrington a one-off? Are modern power grids, satellites, and internet infrastructure any safer than an 1859 telegraph? And if the sun does cough another piece of itself at us, is there anything we can actually do? Guests: Jim Green, former chief scientist of NASA and founder of Metavisionaries Elizabeth Butler at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center For more threats from space, check out our episodes: " Asteroids! The Doom We're Best At " " We Are Losing the Moon " (also with Jim Green) Also mentioned in this episode: " We Try and Kill the Internet " Support Are We Doomed? , get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/ Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy