.
Why is it our own government continues to hide the truth from us but expects our support? This article released today, July 25, 2012, details how close the Earth came on July 23, 2012 to be so fried by solar flares it might have knocked us back into the 18th century, a time before electricity.
Since NASA has satellites monitoring solar flares in real time why was no warning given of the biggest solar storm in modern history that might have caused a worldwide calamity? If they are hiding such crucial facts from us what other truths is NASA hiding from us?
Here is the account two years too late by NASA.
Earth survived near-miss from 2012 solar storm: NASA
Washington (AFP) - Back in 2012, the Sun erupted with a powerful solar storm
that just missed the Earth but was big enough to "knock modern
civilization back to the 18th century," NASA said.
The extreme space weather that tore through Earth's orbit on July 23, 2012,
was the most powerful in 150 years, according to a statement posted on the
US space agency
website Wednesday.
However, few Earthlings had any idea what was going on.
"
If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have
been in the line of fire," said Daniel Baker, professor of atmospheric and
space physics at the
University
of Colorado.
Instead the storm cloud hit the STEREO-A spacecraft, a solar observatory
that is "almost ideally equipped to measure the parameters of such an
event," NASA said.
Scientists have analyzed the treasure trove of data it collected and
concluded that it would have been comparable to the largest known space storm in 1859, known as the Carrington event.
A mass of swirling plasma rose up above the Sun, twisted and
turned for almost a day, then broke away. It also would have been twice as bad as the
1989 solar storm that knocked out power across Quebec, scientists said.
"I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that
Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption
happened when it did," said Baker.
The National Academy of Sciences has said the economic impact of a storm
like the one in 1859 could cost the modern economy more than two trillion
dollars and cause damage that might take years to repair.
Experts say solar storms can cause widespread power blackouts, disabling
everything from radio to GPS communications to water supplies -- most of which
rely on electric pumps.
They begin with an explosion on the Sun's surface, known as a solar flare,
sending X-rays and extreme UV radiation toward Earth at light speed.
Hours later, energetic particles follow and these electrons and protons can
electrify satellites and damage their electronics.
Next are the coronal mass ejections, billion-ton clouds of magnetized plasma
that take a day or more to cross the Sun-Earth divide.
These are often deflected by Earth's magnetic shield, but a direct hit could
be devastating.
There is a 12 percent chance of a super solar storm the size of the
Carrington event hitting Earth in the next 10 years, according to physicist
Pete Riley, who published a paper in the journal Space Weather earlier this
year on the topic.
His research was based on an analysis
of solar storm records going back 50 years.
"Initially, I was quite surprised
that the odds were so high, but the statistics appear to be correct," said
Riley.
"It is a sobering figure."
.