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I've read there was a huge solar flare in the 19th century that knocked out telegraph equipment all over the world. Do we know how strong that event was on that

by OskarS 1y ago

I've read there was a huge solar flare in the 19th century that knocked out telegraph equipment all over the world. Do we know how strong that event was on that scale?

sva_ 1y ago
You're probably referring to the Carrington Event https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event The instruments to measure the strength of solar flares didn't exist, but I think it's estimated between X40 to X50. For comparison, last may the strongest flare was X8.7 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2024_solar_storms https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2024_solar_storms