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The Carrington Event of 1859
"Inevitability is the silent force that shapes our path, no matter how we try to resist."
On September 1, 1859, British astronomer Richard Carrington was sketching a massive sunspot when he witnessed something extraordinary—a sudden flash of brilliant white light erupting from the Sun’s surface. Unbeknownst to him, he had just become the first person to observe a Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, with his own eyes. And this one was on a direct collision course with Earth!
Seventeen hours later, the skies above North America blazed as if dawn had come early. The Aurora Borealis, usually confined to the polar regions, shimmered as far south as Colombia. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Aurora Australis flared beyond Brisbane. By September 2, the most powerful solar storm ever recorded smashed into Earth’s magnetic field!
The impact was unlike anything people had ever seen. Telegraph systems across continents crackled with surging currents. Operators reported electric shocks, paper bursts into flame, and wires continued transmitting even when cut off from their power supplies—driven solely by the storm’s geomagnetic force! The event would forever bear Carrington’s name.
Today, scientists know such storms are not unique. A Carrington-scale event striking now would endanger satellites, GPS navigation, communication systems, and entire electrical grids. Space weather monitoring stations—like NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center—constantly watch the Sun for solar flares and CMEs, issuing warnings when magnetic storms are likely to reach Earth. Despite these safeguards, our technological society remains deeply vulnerable to another storm of Carrington’s magnitude.
As Solar Cycle 25 begins its gradual decline from solar maximum, the Sun is still far from quiet. Powerful flares continued through 2026, including several strong eruptions during the spring and summer. Solar activity is expected to diminish unevenly over the next few years, with quieter intervals interrupted by sudden flares, CMEs and geomagnetic storms. Even on the downward side of the cycle, another major solar storm remains entirely possible—because the Sun does not consult the calendar before causing trouble. Yikes! 🧡 🖤 ❤️ 😎 🔥 🔥 🔥
A solar flare is a sudden flash of increased brightness, usually observed near the sun's surface. Flares are often, but not always, accompanied by a coronal mass ejection. The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms along with the electromagnetic waves through the Sun's corona into outer space.
Solar flares strongly influence the local space weather in the vicinity of the Earth. They can produce streams of highly energetic particles in the solar wind or stellar wind, known as a solar proton event. These particles can impact the Earth's magnetosphere (see main article at geomagnetic storm), and present radiation hazards to spacecraft and astronauts. Additionally, massive solar flares are sometimes accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which can trigger geomagnetic storms that have been known to disable satellites and knock out terrestrial electric power grids for extended periods of time.
The solar storm of 1859 (also known as the Carrington Event) was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm during solar cycle 10 (1855–1867). A solar coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record, September 1–2, 1859. The associated "white light flare" in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by British astronomers Richard C. Carrington (1826–1875) and Richard Hodgson (1804–1872).
A solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would cause widespread disruptions and damage due to extended outages of the electrical grid. The solar storm of 2012 was of similar magnitude, but it passed Earth's orbit without striking the planet.
These same energetic particles in the magnetosphere contribute to the aurora borealis and aurora australis.
This fiery tartan by designer Carol A.L. Martin, replicates the hot colors of the sun against the black of empty space.
For more about solar events, click the flaring sun for a link to a Solar Activity watch site.