Sure could.
A little one could knock out the entire internet. A bigger one would also take out satellites, the internet, power grids, undersea cables — and data storage. “We could lose all our records, bank information, and critical health information and not have anything to go back to.”
So say scientists who study solar flares.
The Carrington Event of 1859 (details here), a geomagnetic storm caused by a solar flare (image below), “caused serious damage to telegraph systems.” And produced auroras so bright people could read by them. Long considered the strongest such storm to hit Earth, scientists now suspect it was a relatively little one.
By tracking Carbon-14 in ice cores and ancient tree rings, they’ve deduced that far stronger solar storms may have battered our planet in 7176 and 5259 B.C., and 775 A.D., suggesting they’re more common than scientists previously believed.
If you get electrocuted by your iPhone, blame the sun.
Read story here.
