What Was the Carrington Event?

The Carrington Event is considered to be the biggest recorded solar storm in history by historians and astronomers alike. Occurring on September 12, 1859, a blast of solar particles with about the same amount of energy as a 10-megaton nuclear bomb caused disruptions in Earth’s geomagnetic field. The storm subsided the following day. The Sun would reach the peak of Solar Cycle 10 just months later, during February 1860. It is predicted that a solar storm as big as the Carrington Event will happen every 500 years.