Solar Eruption on Far Side of Sun Disrupts Earth's Technology

A massive eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), was detected on March 13, which could have knocked out Earth's internet. The CME has been compared to the Carrington Event, the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, which knocked out telegraph systems all over Europe and North America in 1859. Although the new CME was on the other side of the Sun, NASA said we will still feel the effects, as spacecraft orbiting Earth detected solar energetic particles (SEPs) from the eruption. The CME was clocked traveling at an unusually fast 2,127 kilometers per second, earning it a speed-based classification of an R (rare) type CME.