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[NEWS]☛ Solar Storm could hit Earth

What would u do without electricity?

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Get ready for a 'global Katrina': Biggest ever solar storm could cause power cuts which last for MONTHS

• Earth is overdue a solar storm as the sun enters its most active period
  

The world is overdue a ferocious 'space storm' that could knock out communications satellites, ground aircraft and trigger blackouts - causing hundreds of billions of pounds of damage, scientists say.

Astronomers today warned that mankind is now more vulnerable to a major solar storm than at any time in history - and that the planet should prepare for a global Katrina-style disaster.

A massive eruption of the sun would send waves of radiation and charged particles to Earth, damaging the satellite systems used for synchronising computers, airline navigation and phone networks.

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Imminent: The world got a taster of the sun's explosive power last week with the strongest solar eruption in five years (white flash, centre) sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world. Scientists believe we are overdue a ferocious solar storm.

• If the storm is powerful enough it could even crash stock markets and cause power cuts that last weeks or months, experts told the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  
  
• The chances of a disruption from space are getting stronger because the sun is entering the most active period of its 11 to 12-year natural cycle.
  
  
• The world got a taster of the sun's explosive power last week when the strongest solar eruption in five years sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world at 580 miles per second.
  
  
• The storm created spectacular aurorae and disrupted radio communications.
  
  
• Professor Sir John Beddington, the government's chief scientific adviser, said: 'The issue of space weather has got to be taken seriously. We've had a relatively quiet period of space weather - but we can't expect that quiet period to continue.
  
  
• 'At the same time over that period the potential vulnerability of our systems has increased dramatically, whether it is the smart grid in our electricity systems or the ubiquitous use of GPS in just about everything we use these days.
  
  
• 'The situation has changed. We need to be thinking about the ability both to categorise and explain and give early warning when particular types of space weather are likely to occur.'
  

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Threat: Rio de Janeiro during a blackout in 2009. A solar storm could cause global power cuts for months, scientists have warned.

Solar storms are caused by massive explosions on the sun.

The explosions release waves of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation which smash into the Earth within minutes, disrupting radio signals and damaging the electronics of satellites.

They are followed ten to 20 minutes later by a burst of energetic particles which cause even more havoc with satellites - and then 15 to 30 hours later by supercharged plasma which collides with Earth's magnetic field.

The plasma create the aurora - or Northern Lights - and can induce electrical currents in power lines and cables.

Jane Lubchenco, head of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said: 'This is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when and how big.

'The last time we had a maximum in the solar cycle, about 10 years ago, the world was a very different place. Cell phones are now ubiquitous; they were certainly around but we didn't rely on them for so many different things.

'Many things that we take for granted today are so much more prone to the process of space weather than was the case in the last solar maximum.'

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Communications satellites would be knocked out by a solar storm, causing widespread chaos on Earth and hundreds of billions of pounds of damage.

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i'm extremely displeased with this news

Don't you just love depressing news lol

Earth is expired lol its going rotten. Earth is also overdue of a ice age. Maybe 2012 is foreal. But everything happens for a reason.

i've always said the same ty

Pretty interesting news, I posted something before like this but it was a smaller solar storm predicted in 2012 I think.

Also, I bet all teenagers would shoot themselves because they can't use their electronic devices. :p

If we burn up, we burn up. If our ps3 hdd gets wiped, well no more cfw 12 year old mw2 CL's.

this was on my las weeks news that was gonna happen liek las wednesday and nothing :/ idk i hope nothin to bad

I watched a documentary the other day. It was about the Mayan's and how they predicted the apocalpsye. It went on for 2 hours and basically they predicted many natural and man-made disasters, and that the run in to '2012 doomsday' would happen in the 2nd month of the first year. This presuming February 2011. Well what has happened this month so far? The Worst earthquake ever to hit christchurch, Libyia about to have a civil war the pakistan earthquake, i could go on.
The Mayan's have correctly predicted each of their predictions so far in history; 2006 Boxing day tsunami, 2001 Twin Towers, Jesus Christ's birth (Jesus christ was a REAL living person in the time era where he 'belonged'. The 1969 Roswell crash, as i said i could go on. Don't doubt. This solar flare could be another natural disaster just around the corner.

We ****ed with mother nature, she is now gunna **** with us.