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The world’s media has been awash recently with news of a cosmic near-miss a couple of years ago that could have spelled disaster for planet Earth.

Physicists have released details of a solar storm that occurred on July 23rd, 2012, along with the disturbing fact that, had the storm occurred just one week earlier, Earth would have been directly in the line of fire.

“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,” physicist Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado said in a NASA Science online release. “If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire.”
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Two weeks ago the sun emitted an electromagnetic pulse that would have caused a catastrophe on Earth had it struck us. But it passed through Earth’s orbit two weeks before we arrived at the point of intersection. Had it hit our planet, it would have destroyed hundreds of the massive transformers that our electric grids depend on. It is unknown how extensive the damage might have been had the pulse hit us, but if its greatest energy had struck the United States, larger areas of the country would have been left without power possibly for years, and the country as we now know it could have ended.
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A direct hit from an ejection of charged particles from the sun could be among the most serious of natural disasters, NASA head Charles Bolden warned Tuesday. Bolden spoke before scientists and industry members at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum, which was held at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Auditorium and Science Center in Silver Spring, Md. A few days later, a huge hole opened up in the sun’s corona, raising the possibility that major solar storms could take place in the next few days.
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