Record-breaking solar storm discovered from prehistoric era

The sun is once again active, and a sunspot is releasing solar flares, one of which whiplashed a whopping 1 million kilometres. Last year, our star was active for several weeks, releasing Coronal Mass ejections, triggering auroras on Earth and disrupting radio signals. However, what we have experienced is nothing in comparison to what happened 14,300 years ago.

This was when the strongest solar storm was recorded in the history of the planet, and the first to have occurred around the end of the last Ice Age. A study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters states that this extreme event occurred in 12,350 BCE.

The solar storms till now have only affected communications and created auroras on Earth. However, a stronger storm has the potential to destroy the planet’s magnetic field and disrupt wider technological systems.

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Extreme Solar Particle Events throughout history

These storms are known as Extreme Solar Particle Events (ESPEs), and only eight of them have been recorded in the last 12,000 years. The strongest one happened in 775 CE. Now scientists have learned of one ESPE that happened before this period, and was 18 per cent stronger than the 775 CE event. A study suggests that this solar event likely occurred between January and April 12350 BCE.

“Compared to the largest event of the modern satellite era — the 2005 particle storm — the ancient 12,350 BCE event was over 500 times more intense, according to our estimates,” said Kseniia Golubenko, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oulu in Finland, in a statement.

The revelation was made by data preserved by a tree in Europe. Notably, tree rings are known to capture radiocarbon spikes in the atmosphere that happen during a solar storm. The researchers created a model called SOCOL:14C-Ex and used data from a radiocarbon deposit in a tree from Southwestern Europe.

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Current solar activity and future risks

Solar storms have become quite common in the past few years, as the Sun is believed to have entered an extremely active phase. This week, on May 14, it released X-class flares, the strongest of all. A geomagnetic storm is not on the horizon, although the sunspot is slowly turning towards Earth.

But experts say that humans don’t need to worry about something as extreme as the 12,350 BCE event happening in their lifetimes.

According to a 2024 study, ESPEs are notches above anything that has ever been experienced in the modern age. It states ESPEs are “up to three orders of magnitude stronger than” any solar particle event recorded.

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