Bursts of solar flares from the
Sun's surface look spectacular,
but they can pose a danger
to us here on Earth. 
If one was to hit us hard enough,
it would knock our entire
planet into darkness.
Wait, what?
This is WHAT IF,
and here's what would happen
if a massive solar storm hit the Earth.
It wouldn't be the solar flares
that sent us back into the
pre-technological era.
It'd be the giant clouds of hot plasma
and electromagnetic radiation
that the Sun spews out.
This is a phenomenon known as
a coronal mass ejection, or CME.
In 2012, a powerful CME shot
through the Earth's orbit.
Luckily, we missed a direct hit.
We weren't so lucky back in 1859,
when the electromagnetic
radiation of another CME
set telegraph pylons on fire.
The telegraph.
That's really all there was
for technology at the time.
But now?
Our entire planet is deeply reliant
on electricity and electronics.
If a solar storm that
strong were to strike today,
we'd be in a much worse situation.
It would start with an enormous
explosion on the Sun's surface.
The solar flare would zap the
Earth's upper atmosphere
with a giant electromagnetic pulse.
This would block radio signals between
the Earth and our orbiting satellites,
but wouldn't damage them just yet.
Not until minutes to hours later,
when a stream of charged particles started
bombarding the Earth's magnetosphere.
These particles would hit some of the
satellites and damage their electronics.
Our communication
systems would begin failing.
But the worst is yet to come.
After anywhere from 12 hours to several days,
a cloud of plasma would
finally reach the Earth.
First, it would hit NASA's ACE satellite,
designed to warn us
about the upcoming storm.
Even with that warning, we'd
only have about 30 minutes
before that space cloud rained
down on our magnetosphere
and triggered a geomagnetic
storm here on Earth.
Hopefully, you're not on an airplane at the time,
because its GPS system would fail,
and your pilot would have to
start navigating without it.
On Earth, the geomagnetic storm
would start to melt our
power grid transformers.
Do you know what that means?
Not much fun for all us power-hungry
humans down here. 
All the lights would go out.
You wouldn't be able to charge
your phone or your laptop.
Your fridge would stop refrigerating,
and your heater would stop heating you up.
Make sure you have some spare cash
because all the ATMs would be useless,
just like your credit cards.
Most likely, you wouldn't even
be able to flush your toilet,
since in most modern cities
water supply is controlled electronically.
Anything and everything relying
on the internet would shut down.
No banking services,
no internet access in the
transportation system,
and no social media to
vent your frustration in.
We can't control the space weather.
If the Sun were to send us a direct hit,
this hypothetical scenario would get real.
Almost real.
NASA and The Space
Weather Prediction Center
keep monitoring the activity of our Sun.
Their 3-day forecast would give us a
heads up if our star looked suspicious.
We might have time to
disconnect transformers
and switch the satellites into safe mode.
Maybe one day we'll build a
protective shield around the Earth
to prevent something
like this from affecting us.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.
