Dear Solar Spectator,
The Old Farmer’s Almanac’s astronomy editor, Bob Berman, has been interested in what happens on Earth when the Sun “explodes.” Solar flares, violent solar phenomena that make even modern solar researchers nervous, were first witnessed in 1859 by a scientific community that was puzzled and fascinated by sunspots—dark marks on the solar surface that came and went in roughly 11-year cycles.
None of these experts had any idea what they were, how they moved across the Sun, or whether they affected Earth. One of them, 33-year-old British astronomer Richard Carrington, was obsessed by solar activity. Through his 4-inch refracting telescope, he observed the spots on every clear day.
The days leading into September 1859 had seen unusually intense solar storms, and scientists were abuzz. Suddenly, at 11:18 a.m. on September 1, Carrington was rewarded for his diligence: To his amazement, a large sunspot cluster near the top of the Sun grew strangely dazzling. Despite a protective eye filter, he could barely watch. The flare became so luminous that it doubled the brightness of the Sun. He knew that this was no optical illusion, and his observation was soon confirmed by another British observer, Richard Hodgson.
As Carrington and Hodgson watched the flare, instruments at England’s King’s Observatory recorded a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field. Would this be the long-sought evidence that events on the Sun affect our planet?
The answer arrived that night. |
